


There Are No Secrets That Time Does Not Reveal

by NerdiestOfAll



Category: The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Clint finds Peter's actions amusing, Natasha sees good in the young man, Oscorp is full of baloney, Peter is naive as heck, Someone beloved dies early on, Steve hopes to set Peter straight, Tony doesn't like Peter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2018-08-13 08:03:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 40,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7968793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdiestOfAll/pseuds/NerdiestOfAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Peter was raised up by Oscorp under the impression that S.H.E.I.L.D. and the Avengers are terrible people, responsible for his parents' death? And what happens when someone he cares for is harmed, but his thirst for blood comes to an extreme halt when he realizes something. Yeah, I still suck at summaries...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

All Peter remembers is living in a, well, bunker. He has been living here ever since his parents were killed by S.H.E.I.L.D. agents. Apparently, Peter's father had been working on research to help the world, but that would cause the organization the agents worked for to lose power over the people, and they couldn't have that. While attempting to flee, his father had injected him with a serum based off his research, making Peter the "greatest hope for the world". Peter was not sure at first how he felt about his father injecting him with an untested serum, but he eventually came to the conclusion it was for the best.

After Peter's parents were killed, some of the people that were secretly working with his father took him in. Upon realizing what Richard had done, they hind him in a bunker, away from the eyes of the organization that killed his parents. In the public, the people who took him in worked in a company, Oscorp. But secretly, they were part of a movement to take S.H.E.I.L.D. down.

The bunker was not uncomfortable, as the scientists who raised him spoiled him with a pretty comfortable room, considering everything. The only real downer was the tests they had to put him through. Tests to create solutions to the issues that lay outside of the bunker, as a result of the agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D. He has never seen the outside personally, not even from the news, as he didn't have a tv or radio. Or at least, he hadn't seen any of that since his parents were killed when he was an infant, but he trusted those who had taken him in.

Every day was the same routine. Get up, breakfast, tests, recover if needed, lunch, study what the scientists taught him education wise, train to use his powers for Oscorp's benefit, dinner, sleep, repeat. Nothing ever changed.

At least, nothing changed until the Avengers showed up with aliens coming out of a portal in the sky. Peter remembered when he first heard about them when he overheard one of the scientists mention them to another, describing them as a potential "problem".

Eventually, Peter was briefed that the group was under S.H.I.E.L.D. They apparently caused havoc in Germany while attempting to act as "heroes". He couldn't believe it. No one under that organization should be ever seen as heroes. Peter immediately hated them.

Not even a week later, chaos erupted.

Scientists flew all of the place, clearly in a panic, grabbing about as much as they could from locked drawers. Soon enough, a man named Norman Osborn, the leader of this organization, came down and pulled Peter to the side.

"Pack what you need, quickly." The man ushered Peter to his room, "There is no time to waste. All hell is breaking loose." Peter did as instructed, packing mostly clothes and books, and met Norman at his door.

"What's going on?" Peter questioned, as they whipped around through the hallways.

"New York is currently under attack. We need to leave." The older man informed, pressing a button to an elevator, which Peter had neve home on before, "We need to get you safe. The Avengers are involved."

The young man widened his eyes and looked to his superior, "Shouldn't I help the people? Isn't that my purpose?"

Norman shook his head, "No, not now. You are not ready. This is not the right time."

"How is it not?"

"We don't know anything about these people. Can't have you going to battle blindly. Not when they likely know everything about you, being under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s command."

"But people could be dyi-"

"Peter, you are to follow me to the safe house. That is it. End of discussion." Peter frowned and slumped back, only to have the elevator bing, causing Peter to jump in surprise, and open to the first floor of Oscorp.

Peter was led through the building, which had people in a panic, running around everywhere. The whole thing was a mess. Eventually, they made it into a garage, and Norman pulled out keys and motioned for Peter to get in the car. Hesitantly doing so, as Peter still believed he should be helping people, the young man placed his bag on his lap.

Once they pulled out into the street, Peter was shocked by what he saw. He had no recollection of being outside before, but he was pretty sure that there was not supposed to be a large hole in the sky with strange-looking beings coming through.

It did not take long to spot the Avengers, who looked exactly as described, running around and fighting the strange creatures... 'Are they aliens?' He wondered to himself. He then expressed his question to Norman, who shrugged.

"We think that this whole 'alien invasion' thing is just a act, a very good one at that, in order to set the Avengers up as heroes. They likely inlisted the help of their alien friend, Thor." Peter nodded in understanding as they continued down the road.

Turning a corner, as to avoid some nasty-looking aliens, they came face-to-face with some of the alien friends. Okay, not face-to-face, as the aliens weren't right in front of them, and they seemed to not be paying the car any attention. Instead, they surrounded a girl, about Peter's age, with beautiful blonde hair.

Without even thinking, the young man hopped out of the car and raced towards the group. It didn't take him much of an effort to take the group down, simply just a few swings and the use of their own weapons against them. Once he was done, he turned to the girl.

"Are you alright?" He helped her up.

"Y-yes. Yes, I am fine. Thank you." She gave a small smile, "That was pretty impressive."

"Oh, that?" Peter looked down at his feet, "I guess it was. Even surprised myself."

The girl giggled, "I'm Gwen, by the way. Gwen Stacy."

Peter smiled, "I can see that." He motioned to her name tag. 'She works at Oscorp. A good guy.', "I'm P-"

"Peter! We need to go, now." Osborn called from his car.

"I can't leave her." The young man looked at him, plea in his eyes.

"No, no. Go ahead. I'm near a safety bunker my dad had set aside for my family. Makes a lot of enemies as a police chief. Besides, it's not a good idea to keep Mr. Osborn waiting." She laughed.

"Are you sure?" Peter questioned, he really didn't want to let her go.

"It's right over there." She pointed at an area behind Peter, "I think I can handle myself enough to get thirty feet without getting killed."

"Okay." The young man sighed, "If you are sure." Gwen placed a kiss on his cheek as she walked past him, causing Peter to freeze for a second, before turning to watch her.

Gwen waved at Norman, "I will see you at work once this is all over, Mr. Osborn."

"Certainly, Miss Stacy." The older man replied with a small, fake smile. Seeing that Gwen made it to her destination, Peter moved to hop in the car with a wide grin. However, he stopped when he recognized the woman known as "Black Widow" staring at him, eyes squinted with her brows furrowed together. She had seen the fight. Peter decided to try to ignore her as he stepped into the car, putting the grin that had slipped his face for a second there back on.

"Don't get used to all this." Norman cautioned upon seeing Peter's smile. He clearly hadn't noticed the Avenger, "You know what your purpose is."

"Yes, of course, sir. I know." Peter sighed.

"Then we shall be on our way."

Looking back on that day now, Peter realized that he had just set himself up for heartbreak. He connected with someone, and he should have immediately known that that would be a fatal mistake. A fatal mistake that punished the one he cared for, brining him to tears and misery.


	2. Consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo! I am on a roll. I just finished the last chapter, and with the juices flowing, I didn't want to stop. So, here I am, at one in the morning, writing up the next chapter. Let's see how this goes!- I love looking at these notes that I had written when I actually wrote this fic initially. XD I just look at them like, "Huh. I'm such a weirdo." Anyways, I was going to wait to put this up, but I saw I got a good amount of response on this site and got several reviews (which, if any of you read my stuff on the other site, I can't read right not because that site is currently hating on me). So, here we are!
> 
> Anyways, let's get on with the story!
> 
> Disclaimer: All character rights go to Sony, Marvel, and Disney.

A couple weeks later, after taking some time away in a small hotel in Rhode Island, Norman and Peter arrived back at Oscorp.

As soon as the pair entered the building, Peter spotted Gwen. She was standing by the receptionist, seeming to be having a nice conversation with the woman behind the desk. Turning as she finished her conversation, she spotted Peter looking at him.

"Peter!" Her eyes lit up as she waved and ran over to him. Mr. Osborn left the two to put his key into the elevator, but watched them closely.

"Gwen." He smiled, "How's everything going?"

"Pretty well, considering everything. I mean, as you could see, the city is still a mess." She motioned to the Windows behind her, "But I wasn't going to let the messy streets and lack of open coffee shops stop me from getting to work."

"Well, I am glad that you came today." Peter slipped out, but then blushed, "I mean, so you can still do your job. Good work ethic."

Gwen smiled, "I'm sure that's why you're happy. Well, if it is any constellation, I am glad to see you here too."

"Really?" The boy blushed harder.

Before Gwen could answer, Norman called out, "Peter! We need to go!"

The young man sighed, "Duty calls." He turned to leave, but Gwen's voice stopped him.

"Hey, if you are free tonight from Norman's demanding needs, I was wondering if you would like to have dinner." Gwen gave a small smile, "I know guys typically ask, but I wasn't going to wait for you to get up the courage to ask yourself."

Peter's face lit up, "Yeah, yeah. That'd be nice."

"We can meet at 7:00 in front of the tower, then hunt down someplace that is actually still open after the alien invasion." She suggested.

"Peter!" An impatient voice called for him.

"Coming!" He turned to tell the voice, then looked at Gwen, "Definitely! I'll see you then!" And he raced off to meet the voice.

-Line break-

Of course, there was one major problem with the plan: Peter was not allowed to leave his hideout. Upon asking for a night out, Peter was immediately shut down and sent to his room, where he paced, trying to figure out what to do.

Eventually, he decided to take a big step for himself, and sneak out. Luckily for him, he had money given to him in case of an emergency that he could use for the date. This was an emergency, right?

It honestly was not that hard to sneak out, as no one really expected the boy who sat around and did everything he was told to do so. The most difficult part was getting past the ID scanner for the elevator, which Peter easily hacked into. Soon, he was on his way outside to meet Gwen.

The young woman appeard completely beautiful, despite having just gotten out of work, making Peter stare in awe. Smiling at Peter when he appeared in front of him, she asked, "You ready?"

"Definitely." He smiled back.

Two hours later

All the two could find open nearby was a Shawarma joint. The place was a mess, but the pair didn't care. They just ate as they discussed science and other shared interests, though Peter didn't have many, being down in a bunker his whole life. Eventually, Gwen began to talk about her dad, mother, and three brothers. She spoke about them with such intense love, despite her feuds with her brothers, that Peter began to feel a missing piece in him, having no blood relatives. Gwen did come to ask about his family, but Peter simply told her that his parents died in a plane accident and that Norman had taken him in. "That explains a lot about you two." Was her response, in addition to the, "I am sorry." she gave on the news of his parents.

Despite the saddening short turn, Peter enjoyed the night and dreaded going back to Oscorp. He dropped her off by her apartment, where Gwen turned to kiss him, on the lips this time.

After the kiss, Gwen smiled at him, "I figured you would be too chicken again, so I decided to go in for it myself."

Peter smiled, "You were probably right." he said before giving her one more kiss.

"Goodnight, Mr. Parker." She smirked, going into her apartment.

"Night, Miss Stacy." He smiled back, and then turned to skip down the hall.

-Line break-

Peter rode down in the elevator with a huge smirk on his face, only to be greeted by a fuming Donald Menken once the elevator opened.

"What did you think you were doing, sneaking out like that?" The man questioned, "You know the rules!"

"I was just seeing a girl. Nothing bad."

"Nothing bad? What if she recognized you as the 'missing son of Richard Parker' and reported you to S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or if the organization just happened to have spotted you themselves?"

"She works for Oscorp. She's a good woman." Peter argued, "Besides, how could anyone recognize a nineteen year-old who was last seen as an infant?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. likely has spies among us. You can't just assume that they are a 'good guy' because they work at Oscorp. And you would be amazed at how well technology could predict how you would look today."

"But-"

"No buts, ands, or ifs! This discussion is over. You are not seeing her again. Now go to your room, I have to talk to Mr. Osborn about your actions. You are lucky we aren't putting a punishment on top of this."

"As if not getting to see Gwen isn't punishment." Peter huffed as he stomped to his room.

Of course, Peter ignored the rule to stay away from Gwen. He snuck out to meet her regularly, and sometimes got caught, despite learning to be more careful when sneaking out. Eventually, Peter was made a "punishment cell", where he had to stay and just sit in with nothing to do and no comfort items whenever he got caught.

This trend continued until the bad news came. News that made Peter regret his decision to ignore the rule that kept him from Gwen. In his time with her, he had fallen deeply, and hopelessly, in love with Gwen. He even began to consider leaving Oscorp and making a new life with the woman he loved. She showed him that the world was not as dark and cruel as the men who raised him painted it as, so Peter didn't think he was not as needed as he initially thought.

However, after a year and a half of playing the game of sneaking out of Oscorp, Peter was given the bad news. News that made him lock himself lock himself in his room and cry for hours upon hours. It couldn't be true. It couldn't.

The night before he was given the news, Peter had gotten back later than usual and was once again caught by Menken. They had a long fight, and Peter had no intention of backing down. He eventually exploded and informed Menken of his decision to leave to be with Gwen. Immediately, he was dragged down to his "punishment cell" and told that he was not to leave, once again being reminded of his "responsibilities". The next morning, he was informed of the devastating news.

Gwen was shot in her apartment, as she was getting ready for work. Norman, who had entered the cell to deliver the news solemnly, told Peter that it was a hit man for S.H.I.E.L.D., who was hired when the organization had spotted and recognized Peter with Gwen. Their immediate reaction, in their cruel nature, was to kill the woman he loved. There was a slight tingling in the back of his head as Norman spoke, but he ignored it. His anger forced all suspicion that he had down. He was solely focused on S.H.I.E.L.D.

After hours of crying that night, Peter came to make an oath. An oath to Gwen to avenge her for her death. Her murder only fueled the fire that was already burning inside of him from his parent's murder.

"I'm going to come for you, and I am going to take you down." Peter swore angrily, looking at a file on S.H.I.E.L.D., "Whatever the cost."


	3. Spider Vs Iron

-One Year Later-

Peter now sat in a lab in New Jersey. Like all the other labs, Peter had a room to stay in, where now sat on the bed reading. He had been at the lab for a month now. The routine he had back in New York did not change when he arrived here, but the scientists here supposedly had some advanced technology to push forward the research at a more advance speed.

Peter moved to stick his book on the bookshelf, as he had just finished it. At the very moment he placed the book on the shelf, an alarm went off, signaling intruders. Moving away from the shelf, Peter went into a secret room in the wall, as it was standard protocol. He was to wait there until someone came to get him.

Not long after, one of the men who worked at this facility, Peter believed that the man was the person in charge, opened the door and guided Peter out. Without hesitation, he followed behind the man.

"What's going on?" Peter questioned.

"Someone tipped off S.H.I.E.L.D. about our facility. They sent the Avengers to 'take care of us'." The older man informed. Suddenly, what Peter has recently discovered and came to dub his 'spider sense', as he had been informed that the genetic change in him was from spiders, went off.

Peter heard the sound of blasts and then saw a metal suit round the corner and then move its arm to aim at the man next to him. The young man jumped onto the scientist, saving him from the blast. Peter then moved to get up and run towards Iron Man. Shooting out webs from his web-shooters, which he had created partially for defense and partially for humor, he flung himself into the armor's chest.

Iron Man jumped back in surprise, but then moved to blast Peter. However, before he could do so, Peter jumped back to the ground and shot out the web fluid to force the metal hands to stick together. Not realizing what Peter had done soon enough to react and stop the blast from going off.

"Shit!" the man in the suit let out as his repulsers fried, "My repulsers have been fried! I'm going to need back up." Peter assumed he informed his team. Not wanting to run into anymore of the Avengers, Peter moved to help his superior back up, who guided him to the escaping point. Luckily, they didn't run into anymore of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s goons along the way. Sure, Peter wanted to make them to pay for what they did to Gwen and his parents, but he was not currently in the best situation to do so.

-Avenger's POV-

After arriving at the tower after the mission, the entire team collapsed on chairs. Well, besides Clint, who just went into the air ducts to take a nap.

"I can't believe that little punk fried my repulsers like that!" Tony groaned as he got up to pour himself a drink.

Clint chuckled from the duct above, "Yeah, he kicked your but in under a minute! So much for being the smartest man alive!" Tony rolled his eyes.

"Do you have any idea who it was?" Steve asked, but Tony shook his head.

"No." Then the billionaire's eyes lit up, "But I did save a picture of him into my armor's drive!" He got up and ran to the elevator, "I'll be right back."

"So, S.H.I.E.L.D. may have been right." Natasha leaned back, "Hydra does have a weapon."

"The man Tony fought?" Bruce questioned, looking at the red-head, who nodded.

"Some man that took down Tony in under a minute and then proceeded to be lead out in a rush by the lead scientist? Seems like a secret weapon to me." the woman informed.

Steve nodded, "Seems like it." Just then, Tony came out of the elevator, then flew to the tv without a word, plugging in the drive. After a minute of Tony going through the drive, an image of a boy no older than twenty-one or twenty-two years old.

Clint, who just came out of the air duct, burst out into a laughing fit, "That small guy took you down?" tears were leaving his eyes, "Oh! That's priceless."

Tony narrowed his eyes, "He didn't take me down..." he looked down, "Only fried my repulsers."

Natasha got up and walked closer to the image, familiarity clear on her face, "I've seen this guy before..." a light bulb seemingly popped over her head, "During the Battle of New York! He took down a group of Chitauri on his own, saving a girl." her eyes squinted, "He proceeded to get in a car with Norman Osborn after the fight."

"Well, we have suspected that Oscorp has been working with Hydra." Bruce pointed out.

"It's so weird. He seemed like a good guy, the way he helped the girl." the woman's eyes narrowed further.

"That's not how he came off to me." Tony huffed.

"We can ask S.H.I.E.L.D. to look into him." Steve suggested.

The billionaire shook his head, "S.H.I.E.L.D. likely has moles. We don't want anyone to know we are looking into this boy, just in case."

Clint nodded, "He's got a point. I say we look into this ourselves."

"Really?" Tony's eyes widened, "You are willing to go back on the pirate, just like that?"

The archer shrugged, "Your logic makes sense. Besides, I want to be there to give that kid a high five for kicking your ass next time." a smirk appeared on his face.

Tony rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. So, are we all in agreement?"

Clint nodded, Bruce shrugged as if saying 'why not?', and Natasha, who also nodded, "I am not completely convinced this is a bad guy. As committed as I am to S.H.I.E.L.D., I don't want want them involved, just in case."

Everyone turned to look at Steve, who sighed, "Only because what you guys say have some logic and moralistic reasoning to it."

Tony smiled, "I'm proud of you, Steve. Didn't expect you to bend over. I expected you to be more like a pole made of vibranium." Steve rolled his eyes, "Now let's get to work!"


	4. Spider-Stalking

Disclaimer: Character rights go to Sony, Marvel, and Disney.

-Two Months Later-

Peter sat on the ledge of a building near the Avengers' Tower, waiting for his mission. A couple weeks after the team infiltrated the facility in New Jersey, Norman had decided it was time to take the team out before they got any stronger, or any closer to their research. Soon, Peter was sat through over a month's worth of debriefing and training on how to, well, spy on someone. That probably was not enough time to learn all he needed to know, but they had to get him working, fast.

Eventually, Steve Rogers walked out of the building, and Peter proceeded to follow him. The mission, should Peter choose to accept, which he obviously did since he's here, is to follow the soldier. Get a sense of his routine so Oscorp would know the perfect time to strike.

The man's first stop was a small coffee shop, where he ordered coffee, of course, and a croissant. 'Huh. You would think a big guy like that would need much more than just a croissant for breakfast.' Peter thought to himself.

The subject then proceeded to go to one of the areas, which was still under construction even nearly two years after the Chitauri, or rather S.H.I.E.L.D., attack. Peter narrowed his eyes in confusion as the man proceeded to take off his jacket and help with the construction. 'Why would he help these people? Isn't he a bad guy?' Peter shook his head, 'Clearly he is just keeping up his good image with the public. Why else would he be helping?'

Steve proceeded to spend the rest of the day doing "good Samaritan" stuff, like volunteering in the soup kitchen. The guy seemed so genuinely happy helping out, it surprised Peter.

After stopping by the grocery store (yes, as hard as it was for even Peter to imagine beforehand, Captain America went grocery shopping), he stopped at the tower, put away the groceries, and changed into work-out clothing (No, Peter did not watch him get change. That would be wrong.). Though Peter did not get to see where the man went afterwards, he assumed that Steve went to work out in a gym in the building. After a few hours, the soldier reappeared, in his star spangled costume, Peter must have not been paying attention when the man snuck into his room to change, in the kitchen. Peter's mouth hung open as he watch Steve proceed to cook himself dinner. He didn't know why, but it seemed so odd watching the super soldier cook for himself. So... Normal.

No one else on the Avengers team joined him, or even showed up at the tower. The soldier just sat there, eating on his own. Oddly enough, Peter found himself smiling as he watched the man. Something about all this just seemed comforting. After finishing dinner, the man proceeded to do his dishes and go out, taking his shield with him.

Outside, the soldier snuck around, looking for any criminals who were unlucky enough to cross his path. When he did find them, he, well, kicked their butts. There were a few moments in which Peter felt like he wanted to join him, but he knew he couldn't. He had a mission.

Hours later, after Peter saw the soldier go to bed, he returned to his own home. Stepping out of the elevator, Peter was immediately greeted by Osborn and Menken. Without the older men having to say anything, Peter gave them a synopsis of the day.

"He seemed so good, and, at times, almost normal." Peter commented.

Norman shook his head, "Of course he seems that way. He's trying to keep up a good public image."

The young man turned to his superior, "That's what I thought at first, but at the end of the day, he began to feel genuine. Even when I was the only one looking."

Menken raised his eyebrows, "Mr. Parker, do we need to take you off this assignment? We understand if it's too difficult for you, just recently being exposed to the outside world."

Peter stopped, "No!" he shook his head, "No, I can handle it. I just wanted to express my thoughts on what I saw."

Menken narrowed his eyes, but Norman stepped forward, "Well, if you are sure you can stick to the task..." Peter nodded, "Very well, then you better get off to bed. Another long day ahead of you tomorrow." Peter gave another nod and walked off.

For the rest of the week, Peter continued to watch the soldier. The specific activities he participated in varied, but they were always to help the New York citizens. Each day, Peter's views of Steve became better and better, making him doubt more and more. One evening, Peter was watching Steve beating the pulp out of bad guys when his spider-sense went off. Immediately, he moved to the side, dodging an arrow.

"Interesting." Peter turned to the voice behind him, "So you obviously have some skill, dodging my arrows." It was Hawkeye, or Clint Barton. Peter just stared as the archer moved a bit closer, "So, spying on Steve, are we? Tsk tsk tsk. You know, if you are going to stalk someone, it may as well be someone interesting."

Peter finally spoke, "What do you want?"

"There are a couple of goals I have here. One, to thank you for providing me with humor by taking down Tony. Sadly, that also brings me to number two. I have to take you in."

Peter shook his head, moving to stand on the ledge of the building, "I'm not going into S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I'm not taking you into S.H.I.E.L.D." The archer explained, "We don't want them involved. Just between you and us, the Avengers."

"I don't believe or trust you." and with that, Peter jumped off the building, getting a yelp from Hawkeye, and swung away to escape.

Upon return, Peter explained what had happened to his superiors, who both appeared nervous about the news.

"We'll have to move up the time table." Menken looked at Norman, who nodded.

"Yes. With them knowing about Peter watching, it'll be very difficult to take them down. Our best move is to strike first."

"Strike?" Peter questioned.

Norman looked at Peter, dead serious, "Yes, Peter. We are going to kill him, tomorrow night."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry! I am not dead. Though, I am seriously considering fleeing the country. I'm really just updating to distract myself from the elections. Anyone have a good idea as to where I should move to?


	5. The Greyish-Green in his Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: All character rights go to Sony, Marvel, and Disney.

"I don't think that that's a good idea." Peter protested.

"Why not?" Norman challenged.

"I got to watch him do good things for other people all week. It didn't seem like an act. This guy, he's clearly good and believes that he is on the right side."

"It's just an act!" Menken argued, "You said yourself that you were caught. What if they knew from the very beginning and only put on an act to confuse you?"

"But what if it isn't an act?" Peter countered, "We- I would be killing and innocent man!"

"If you are so against killing him, then we will do it ourselves. You said that Mr. Rogers is more alone at night? We'll strike him then. We'll just need you to trail him so you can help us get a good idea of where this will all take place." Donald suggested.

"I don't know if I can-"

"Peter, this is what you have been brought up to do. To help save this world. This is the first step, and I understand that it is always the hardest, but you won't get anywhere without taking it." Osborn placed a hand on Peter's shoulder.

Peter sighed, "Fine."

Norman's face lit up, "Very good! Well, you better get off to bed now. You'll definitely need it tomorrow. Big day." and Peter moved to trail off to bed.

-The Next Night-

Peter watched as Steve walked into an abandoned building. 'What is he doing? There is nothing there.' Peter wondered to himself. After a couple of hours of sitting and waiting, Peter made the decision to enter the building.

He cautiously entered through the top floor's window, which was the seventh floor. Looking around, he saw nothing but darkness. Everything was quiet until he heard a voice.

"I was wondering how long it was going to take you to come in. I was about to give up and leave." Peter moved to turn around and shoot web fluid at the voice, but strong arms wrapped around him, keeping him from moving his arms, "I would prefer that you do not shoot that sticky stuff at me like you did with Tony." Steve said into Peter's ear. 'Why didn't my spider-sense go off?'

Peter struggled, "Let me go!"

"I'm not going to hurt you, I just wanted to ask you a few questions. Can we just talk?" The soldier turned the younger man to look him in the eyes. There were something about those eyes, they made Peter feel like relaxing and doing as he was asked, he didn't understand why.

Peter stopped struggling and sighed, "Fine."

"If I let go, will you stay?" Peter hesitantly nodded in response, and Steve let him go, "Do you mind if we go back to the tower? Kind of prefer there to this haunted house." Steve shuddered.

Despite the fact that his spider-sense was not going off, Peter moved away in distaste of the idea. Seeming to understand what Peter was hesitant about, Steve spoke, "It'll just be the two of us. Clint expressed that he wanted to get involved after meeting you on the rooftop last night, but I told them that I wanted to handle this one alone. They would have been in this building, now, otherwise. And I am not about to take you to S.H.I.E.L.D., Clint told me that you expressed extreme distaste for the organization."

Peter stood, staring at the man for a moment, and then sighed and proceeded to follow the other man out.

At the tower, Steve walked right into the kitchen and casually began to make food. Peter stared, watching the man with interest and slight amusement. 'He took me to the tower... To cook?' Once Steve was finished making two dishes, he led Peter to the table, setting a dish down in front of Peter, who just raised an eyebrow.

"You look too skinny, so I figure that they, whoever the people that... provide for you are, don't feed you very well. Besides, I was hungry, and it's rude not to also feed any guests you may have. And, as you probably know," Steve looked with Peter with a smirk, "I don't have any over often."

Peter quickly moved to hide his face by looking down and staring at the food. 'What if its poisoned?' Sure his spider-sense was quiet, but it didn't exactly warn him of the soldier sneaking up on him either. Steve, seeing the expression on Peter's face laughed, "It's not poisoned. If I wanted to hurt you, I have had plenty of chances now to do so." the soldier narrowed his eyes with a small smirk, "And it'd be rude to not eat what was given to you by your host."

Peter finally eased up a little and gave a small smile back, "Well, I guess I wouldn't want to be rude..." and proceeded to eat. The food was amazing, much better than what he was served in the bunker, but Peter wasn't going to say anything about it. The two didn't say anything while they were eating, but once they were done and had cleaned up, they moved to the couch and recliners.

"So, let's get to the serious stuff." Steve sighed, sitting back on the couch as Peter sat on the recliner, "Who do you work for?"

"The good guys." was all Peter said.

The slightly older man rolled his eyes, "Okay. Specifically though, who do you work for? What organization?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want you reporting their information back to S.H.I.E.L.D. so they can attack the people who pretty much raised me."

"Those people raised you? I guess that would make sense..." Steve rubbed his chin in thought, "Okay, then, why do you hate S.H.I.E.L.D. so much?"

"Because they killed my parents... And the woman I loved." Peter looked down, tears almost in his eyes at the thought of Gwen, "I was going to leave everything to be with her. Why do you work for that horrid organization? You seem like a good person."

"Because S.H.I.E.L.D., in my eyes, are the good guys trying to help the world. I don't think that they would just kill people without reason." Peter looked at Steve, "I would never fight behind people like that. Sure, S.H.I.E.L.D. has its flaws, but so does every other organization. In the end, though, I see that their goods outweigh the bads. I just want to fight with the right people for the right cause, that's why I also joined the Avengers." It was then that Peter felt that uneasy feeling in his stomach. Any moment now, snipers will be coming to shoot the soldier down. Peter never felt okay with killing, but the idea of killing this man, who is so set on doing what he thinks is right, feels worse than the idea of killing any other man.

Peter glanced slightly out the windows to see that the snipers were setting up. One of the men motioned for Peter to leave. The young man, seeing this, got up, "I need to go." He told the blond.

"May I ask why?" Steve asked, but Peter didn't answer. He couldn't, not with this big ball knotting up in his stomach. He felt like he was going to throw up. The moment Peter moved to touch the doorknob, his spider-sense went off, and he imagined the sound of a gun clicking into place.

Peter let out a huge sigh, "Aw, shit. I'm going to regret this."

Before Steve could ask what he meant or register Peter's movements, Peter jumped across the room, onto Steve, just as gunfire began to rain upon the room. Peter used one arm to guard the side of Steve's head that was closest to the window, and his own head to block the man's face. Using his other hand, Peter shot a web out to yank the soldier's shield closer to the pair so he could use it to protect the men's upper parts of their body.

Peter took this time behind the shield to look at Steve. A sudden realization came to Peter as he looked into the hero's eyes. 'They look like Gwen's.' Maybe not exactly, because his were blue, but he had a small hint of her green and grey. No wonder why they so easily convinced him to go to the tower. Peter just stared into the eyes for what seemed like decades before a bullet in his leg brought him out of it, which resulted in the young man letting out a hiss.

Suddenly, all the gunfire stopped, and Peter dared to look over the shield. The snipers were done. They were... Packing up? 'But why?' Suddenly, a helicopter came into view. 'Aw right. The plan for if Steve hid behind his shield in time. A nice, big bomb.'

"Aw, crap." Peter's head slammed into the floor next to Steve's head. The soldier took the shield from Peter's hand and moved it to take a look at was going on himself.

"Oh. No." And the missile shot out.

Swiftly, Steve moved into a sitting position, moving Peter onto his lap. Noticing that the missile was aimed for a floor or so above them and not the one they were on, the soldier rose the shield owner his head. Peter rolled himself in tighter to bring himself closer to Steve.

Then, the bomb hit the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still working on my plans to leave America. Though, I'm facepalming at the people who keep saying that they are leaving the US for Hawaii. I mean, come on people, there are FIFTY states, what do you think is number fifty?


	6. While We Are Stuck Here...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I would just like to spread a Happy Thanksgiving, even to all you non-Americans! You should know that I appreciate you all for your encouragement and support, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Disclaimer: Character rights go to Sony, Marvel, and Disney.

Peter coughed hard in response to all the dust around him entering his lungs.

"Are you okay?" the soldier who was currently holding up his shield above the pair asked.

"Yeah." Peter cleared his throat, "Yeah, I am fine. You?"

"Yeah." The larger man shifted, "This is just getting heavy."

"Here." Peter moved to help Steve hold up the shield. Both heard the ruble above them shift when Peter grabbed the shield, causing the pair to cringe, "Whoops."

Steve gave a small chuckle, "Thanks."

"So, what's our plan? We obviously can't stay here forever..."

"Could we try digging our way out?"

Peter shrugged, "Maybe, but we would have to be very careful. The rubble could come crashing down on us at any moment. How many floors are above us?"

"Six."

The younger man sighed, "That's going to be slightly difficult. I would suggest working our way to the window, but heading that way may be more dangerous than going up."

Steve nodded, "Besides, when the rest of my team come, they will likely be digging from the top down." Peter made a face at the idea of seeing the rest of the Avengers, but didn't say anything about it.

Peter moved to start moving rubble with one arm, while continuing to help hold up the shield with the other. When he shifted some weight onto his left leg, he groaned from pain.

"What-" Peter began to ask before Steve nodded to his leg.

"Oh my gosh, look at your leg." and the younger man moved his eyes down to look at it. There was red staining and seeping out of it.

"Oh, yeah. Kind of forgot about being shot..."

"How do you forget about something like that?"

Peter just shrugged, "I don't know. Probably because that big bomb seemed a little bit like a more pressing issue to me at the time..."

Steve chuckled for a second before turning serious upon greater examination of the leg, "Crud. We can't have you moving too much, or else you may lose blood at a more rapid rate."

"But we also can't wait for your team. I may lose too much before then."

"But it is probably our best choice. I am sure they will get us out of here fast. They aren't too far away. They should have heard the news by now."

Peter sighed, "Fine."

"I never did ask you... What's your name?"

Peter stiffened, "You don't know who I am?"

"Should I?"

"No, I guess not. Is it important?"

"Your name? Kind of. Though, I am really just trying to keep a conversation going so you don't fall out of consciousness."

"I can't tell you my name."

"Not even your first?" Peter didn't respond, "Please. I just want to be able to call you by something."

"How about 'young man'? You seem like the kind of person to call younger males that."

Steve chuckled, "Only when I am upset with them."

"And you are not upset with me?"

"Why would I be?"

"Well, I did fight with your team. Then, I proceeded to follow you... That way I could help collect information so the people I work for could... Could kill you."

"Look, you clearly are a good man, you just do not fully understand what is going on. You were following orders given to you by people you believe are the good guys when you fought Tony. But when you were given the chance to help get rid of me, you recognized that I am also trying to do the right thing, so you saved me. I am not saying that you don't make me feel the need to be extremely cautious, but I understand and respect enough of you to not be upset."

Peter didn't say anything in response, so the two sat in silence for a minute before Steve asked, "Are you going to go back after this?"

A sigh, "I have to."

"Why?"

"I have responsibilities there. Besides... I have nowhere else to go."

"You could stay with us. It will take a bit for the team to warm up to you, but they will come to accept you once you explain everything."

"No offense, but while I do respect you, I don't trust your team. Much less the people you work under."

"We don't have to involve S.H.I.E.L.D."

"You and I both know they will eventually find out about me."

"I'll do whatever I can to make sure that doesn't happen. I just do not think you should go back to those people."

"While you think that..." Peter was getting lightheaded from the blood loss. He moved his hand to his face, as if to help balance it.

"What? Hey, are you okay?" Steve turned Peter to look at him.

"Yeah. Just a bit... Lightheaded." Peter's head fell back into the slightly older man's chest.

"Hey, stay with me, okay? Tell me what you were going to say."

"W-what I was going to say?"

"Yes. Something about while I may think that..."

"Riiiight. While you may... may think that the p-people that raised me are the bad guys, I believe that they a-are the good guys. I need to go- go b-" Peter suddenly stopped.

"Hey." the soldier shook the younger man, "Hey, stay with me. Wake up." Getting no response, the man sighed, "Shit." He felt the weight above him increase once again as he was no longer getting help from the other man.

It was at least another hour before his team finally got to him. Well, Tony was the one who found them, and immediately chose to aim his repulsers at the man on Steve's lap.

"No!" the soldier moved his shield to protect the unnamed young man, "Don't shoot!"

"Why the hell not?" the man in the suit groaned.

"He save me!"

"I am also sure that he worked for the very people who tried to kill you!"

"Well, he did the right thing in the end."

"He could have killed you."

"But as I just said, he didn't. He has a conscious."

"You're not going to let me shoot him, are you?"

"No, I am not."

"Fine, but we are still taking him to our back-up apartment for questioning."

"And to treat him."

Iron Man groaned in response, "Let's go." he mumbled.

-2 hours later-

After treating the unnamed man, the Avengers, apart from Clint, who has not been seen all day, met in the apartment's living room.

"Why would he save a girl during the Battle of New York, then attack Tony, and then proceed to save Steve?" Bruce asked.

"He seems to be unsure of who is really the 'good guy'." Steve suggested, "He may have just attacked Tony in belief that it was out of self-defense. I mean, you did try to blast the man he was with."

"That does make sense." Natasha nodded.

"I still don't like him." Tony frowned.

"Aw, is poor Tony still a little sore about getting his butt kicked?" a voice came from the door.

"No, Clint. I just don't trust him." Tony snapped.

"Well, I do believe that I have gotten a few answers about who our mysterious man is." Clint threw a folder down on the coffee table, "Peter Parker. It took some effort looking for him through S.H.I.E.L.D. databases without anyone finding out, especially because his photo did not have an exact match. I ended up having to look through the databases of missing people and going off of the photos of what those people would look like today."

"How long has he been missing?" Natasha asked as Steve took the thin soldier to scan it.

"Twenty years. He was a little over one years old when his parents died and he went missing, and was eventually assumed to be dead. I can't find anything on his parents though. All of their files have gone missing." Clint informed.

"Probably by moles in S.H.I.E.L.D. We are pretty luck Peter's file was not disposed of as well." Steve continued his scan of the folder.

"Well, it was pretty well hidden, so I guess they may not have thought that we would have started looking for him, much less be able to find him. But I got mad skills." Clint informed.

"Please don't say that." Tony rolled his eyes.

Steve got up, "I am going to check on him. If he's up, I think I am going to try to explain what we found to him."

"Hopefully he will believe you." Bruce said quietly. Once Steve left to go to the room that Peter was in, the entire group decided to stay quiet and pass around the folder.

Soon, the group heard Steve yell out, "Tony!"

The billionaire got out of his seat and walked to the soldier, "What?" Once he entered the room, he was slammed against the wall by his fellow Avenger.

"Were is he?" Steve demanded.

Tony looked at the bed to see that Peter was gone, "Apparently not here."

"I am not messing around, Stark. Where is he?"

"I don't know! How could I possibly know?"

"You made it very clear that wanted him gone! Besides, you have J.A.R.V.I.S. watching everywhere. You would have been informed if he tried to escape." At this point, the rest of the team filled he room.

"I haven't installed him in here yet! I swear! I had no idea that he was gone." Tony yelled.

"Steve, the window is open." Natasha informed.

"So?" the soldier looked at the woman.

"It wasn't before." Bruce provided.

"Are you suggesting that he just kept out of the window to escape?" Steve narrowed his eyes.

Clint stepped forward, "Maybe. We don't know the full extent of his powers. Besides, this is not the first time I would know of him jumping off a tall building."

Steve sighed and set down Tony, who straightened out his shirt, "Gee, Capsicle. Somebody seems pretty protective of that Parker guy."

"He's a good guy. He just needs help being set straight." the soldier narrowed his eyes at his teammate.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." the billionaire rolled his eyes, "Now, what's our next step?"

"We should try to find him. Steve, did he ever tell you who he works for?" Bruce asked.

Steve shook his head, "No. He refused to really tell me anything really."

Tony sighed, "Damn. If only I had ignored Steve and placed the tracker on that kid. So, we should all just agree now, that this is all Steve's fault."

The soldier rolled his eyes, "Whatever, Tony. Let's just get to work."


	7. The Room of Shame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I wasn't going to update today... But........ It's my birthday (though, it's almost not at this time...)!!!! Yay! So, I'm feeling generous, and decided to update! Anyways, let's get on with the story...

Disclaimer: All character rights go to Sony, Marvel, and Disney.

-Peter's POV-

When Peter got back, he was immediately brought back to the 'punishment cell', or, as he now called it, the room of shame. There was some serious yelling back and fourth before he was locked in the room for who know how long. Peter knew that he was off the mission to take down the team of enhanced people, but, frankly, he didn't care. He didn't want to kill the good people, or at least person, on that team. He didn't want to kill anyone.

The room was small, with nothing in it other than a prison style bunk, or at least what he would assume to be one, and a toilet hidden behind a small barricade with a sink, so there wasn't much to do. Peter was left to watch people go by through the thick glass window, which replaced the typical prison bars, or to simply think, which he believed the purpose of having nothing in this cell for him was, so he could think about his actions.

Eventually, someone came for Peter to brief on everything that had happened that night with Steve. However, once the briefing was over, he was left once again. People came in and out for the next couple of weeks, checking on his injuries and the speed at which they were healing. Inevitably, Peter came to the realization of how much he disliked being basically always stuck labs where no one would just talk to you for enjoyment. There were, "How are yous?" asked, but never for an emotional response. They just wanted to know how his body was holding up. Their little lab rat. Don't get him wrong, he loved that he got to be in such an active part of helping the world, but it could get a little dull and lonely. Mr. Osborn did come in and talk to him sometimes, but it never felt quite right.

Maybe that's why he fell into that Avenger's side so quickly. He was just so happy someone, who he saw as good, wanted to talk that he was willing to betray the people who raised him. And, despite all the punishment he may be put through for what he's done, he would do it a thousand times over again. He actually hoped to see that one person at least one more time.

After what seemed to be two weeks, Peter guessed this by the way people seemed to be coming to and leaving work in the days, Norman Osborn came in to see Peter himself.

"You caused quite a problem for us with that stunt you pulled off." The older man pulled a chair into the room and sat in it with a hefty sigh, "More than you may think. We had several allies counting on us doing this, and your actions may have turned them against us."

"I just didn't think it was the right thing to do. Not to him." Peter looked down.

"And what alternative solution would you have suggested?"

"Explain everything to him. Get him on our side." Peter made hand gestures, "He wants to do the right thing, so let him."

Osborn shook his head, "S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers both have him wrapped around their fingers. There's no pulling him into reality."

"But-"

"But nothing. That is the reality. That being said, you did tear apart the mission, so they are onto us, obviously. So, we need to make a new plan."

"What are you going to do?"

"You are going to infiltrate their team."

Peter was completely taken aback, "Me? Why?"

"You said you were given an offer to stay, so you have an easier time getting in than anyone else. Plus, you have special abilities, so they may come to feel that you fit right in."

"Aren't you worried that I'll back out on you again?"

Norman smiled, "No. I'm sure you won't. Besides, even if you do, I have certain countermeasures in place."

"Countermeasures? Like?"

The man's smirk just grew, "That's on a need to know basis." He reached over and patted Peter's lap, causing the younger man to freeze for a second, "Now, I must get going. We'll have to discuss this more later."

As Norman began to walk out the door, a man with a blood bag and needle approached the door. The man turned to hold the door open for the man with a smile that for some reason made Peter feel sick to his stomach. Peter, knowing the drill, rolled up his left sleeve for the man and sighed.

-2 days later, Avenger's temporary apartment-

"Have you found anything yet on Peter?" Steve asked impatiently. To his defense, it had been over two weeks.

Tony looked at him frustrated, "Does it look like I have? And must you ask that question every two minutes?"

"I don't ask it every two minutes!" The soldier frowned at the accusation.

"Yeah," Clint smiled from a chair opposite of Tony's at the table, "Tony is being too generous. It's been every thirty seconds."

Steve rolled his eyes as he stood over the billionaire, "Have-"

"Steve, I swear, if you are about to ask if I have found anything on Peter one more time, I will beat you with your own shield!"

Clint chuckled, "Yes, just like how he took down that skinny guy at the HYDRA base."

"You are not helping motivate me into actually trying to find this guy." The billionaire huffed. Suddenly, Tony's phone rang.

"Ugh. It's Fury. Do I have to pick up?" The billionaire looked hopefully at Steve.

"Yes." Was the response, resulting in a groan from Tony.

"What's up?" Tony asked lamely, putting the phone on speaker.

"We got an anonymous tip on a Hydra base location. And guess where it just so happens to be?" The man with an eye patch informed.

"Please tell me it's someplace nice where we can just vacation at afterwards." Clint sat with his hands together, as if praying.

"In Oscorp's basement." The director simply stated.

"Damn." The archer's head hit the table.

"So, Oscorp and Hydra work together." Bruce comments, "Why is that not at all surprising to me?"

"Because we all know what a mess that company is?" Natasha suggested.

"And what a creep the owner and his associates are." Tony shuddered.

Steve went back to go to his room, "Then I suggest we get suited up."

-2 hours later, Oscorp Tower, Cap's POV-

"Everyone in position inside?" The captain asks. He got affirmatives from all his team members, "Then let's head in."

Steve crept through the halls, but, surprisingly, no one was really there. Tony had shut off the alarms, so no one could have been informed of their arrival. You would think that an evil lair would have more... evil people creeping around. Maybe this was just a normal company basement.

Steve was about to turn a corner when he heard footsteps from the other side of the corner. So, he paused and waited. Once a man carrying a bag of blood rounded the corner, the captain knocked him out with his shield. Sure, he did have doubts on whether or not this was a real Hydra base, but he couldn't run any risks.

The soldier then turned down the corner and began to walk down the hallway. However, it was not long before he reached what looked like a cell with a glass front. The captain looked in at what was inside, but couldn't quite make it out.

"Hey, whoever is there," the voice of the person inside said, "sorry, my vision is a bit blurry right now. Anyways, please tell the people that keep demanding my blood that I only have so much of it, so it would be great if they could back off on how much they take. I mean, wow, my head really hurts."

Captain America immediately recognized that voice, "Peter?"


	8. The Confusing Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we are beginning to catch up to the last chapter that I have written, so updates are going to get a little slower-ish. Anyways, let's not worry about that for now, just thank the user on Fanfiction.net that guilted me into updating (not intentionally, though) and let's get on with the story! Oh! And a quick thanks to all the happy birthday wishes! You guys always light up my day!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. That is all Marvel, Sony, and Disney.

"Wow. Whatever medication you people gave me is really messing with my head." Peter sat up in the bed, "'Cause I'm imagining seeing Captain America right now."

"Well, I am here." The soldier reassured.

Peter raised a brow, "I'm concerned. My hallucinations are getting very convincing."

"No, seriously. I'm here."

"Alright. If you say so."

The soldier rolled his eyes, "I'm going to get you out. Just give me a second to figure this all out." The man began to examine the thick door to the cell.

"Just find someone and use their finger print to unlock the door." Peter pointed out.

"The scientist I just knocked out!" The captain exclaimed, "I'll be right back!" And he ran around the corner to retrieve the body. Once he came back, he used the man's fingerprints to open the door and get into the room, "You okay?" He asked the younger man, who still sat on the bed.

Peter reached to touch the soldier, patting his hand on the older man's chest, "Huh. You're not a hallucination. Guess I am not crazy." The slightly older man gave him a look, "Okay, I'm not that crazy."

"Are you up for coming back to the Avenger's current apartment with me?"

"Sure, but once we are in the hallway, we need to fight."

"Fight?" The soldier exclaimed, "Why would we need to fight?"

"Well, I'm supposed to let myself be taken in by you guys, but I obviously can't let those watching through the security cameras know that we are friendly with eachother. So, I have to pretend to fight with you to make them think that I am trying to make you think that I am going to lose to a fight with you and be taken in by you."

Captain America was clearly puzzled, "Huh?"

The younger man rolled his eyes as they entered the hallway, and then moved to push the older against the wall with some force, "We are supposed to fight, and I am supposed to let you win." Peter explained.

The captain threw Peter on the ground, using his own body to pin the younger man down, "Let me win, huh?"

Peter rolled them so he would be on top, "Yep. Because in reality I would kick your ass."

"Oh," the soldier used his shield to help knock Peter off of him, "You think so?"

Both men got up and looked at eachother for a moment before the captain ran towards Peter with his shield out in front of him. Peter grabbed the shield and twisted it, turning the man behind the shield along with it into the ground, "I'm pretty positive."

Then, Peter's spider-sense went off as one of the soldier's legs swept under him, "I don't know, I feel like my chances are also pretty good." The other man's face appeared in front of Peter's, who felt himself stuck in the same position as earlier when the soldier had pinned him down.

"Come closer." Peter whispered to the iconic American hero, who leaned his face in closer to Peter's, "That's good. I just don't want them to be able to read my lips and know what I'm going to tell you. There's a lab nearby that I am supposed to lead you to. In the lab, there are serums that you can use to take me out, they want me to get you to use those on me so it doesn't look like I'm coming willingly."

"Why wouldn't they want you to seem like you're coming willingly?"

"I run off from you guys and then all the sudden want to come back? Wouldn't that seem a bit fishy to you if you didn't know what's actually going on?"

"Yeah, I guess that's true." A smirk then appeared on the soldier's face, "But how do you plan to lead me to this lab when you're currently in a bit of a sticky situation?"

A bigger smirk appeared on the younger man's face, "By adding more stickiness to it." Peter twisted his arms and aimed his wrists at the captain's face. Soon, the older man found his hands trying to scratch the webbing off his face as Peter slipped out from under him, "Catch me if you can!" the younger man took off down the hallway as Captain America got the last of the webbing off his face.

Peter turned to look back at the soldier to see that the man was chasing after him, but was at the same time struggling to keep from smiling. Honestly, Peter was in a very similar situation, he could probably get away with smiling because Oscorp knew the was supposed to be playing with the soldier. They just couldn't know that the soldier was playing along.

Peter finally reached the room and turned inside to find the serum that he was supposed to get the older man to use on him. He grabbed a needle and filled the tube for it with the serum and quickly moved to the door, just as the captain stepped in the door.

Moving as if he was going to use the needle against the other man, Peter placed himself in what he knew to be a vulnerable position. Looking at Captain America, he knew the other man understood what he was doing. Taking advantage of Peter's position, the older man smacked his shield into Peter's chest, causing him to stumble backwards, near a counter with a sink. The captain then moved to hold up the Peter's arm of the hand that was currently holding the serum, and threw his shield down to used his other hand to push against Peter's chest, leading him to the sink. At the sink, Captain America used Peter's arm that he was holding to maneuver Peter so his back was leaning over the sink.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" the captain checked.

Peter shrugged, "May have a big bruise on the chest later, but nothing I can't recover from."

"I'm not going to actually use the serum on you." the soldier informed, "I'm just going to make it look like I did. I'll put the needle by your neck, but then I'll get everything into the sink."

"You think that they won't be able to tell?" the younger man questioned.

"Not if we are careful. Now be ready to pretend to be knocked out." the captain moved the syringe near Peter's neck and did exactly as he said he would, and Peter pretended to be affected by it, closing his eyes and loosening up. The older man then picked the younger up and walked over to pick up his shield as well. He situated the shield in his hands so it would be in front of the body he was carrying, as if he was protecting the younger man, despite the fact he knew that no one would hurt him.

Jogging down the hall to find his way out, the soldier soon came face-to-face with some armed men, "Oh, great." He sighed to himself. He saw Peter open an eye to try to take a peek at what the other man was referring to, only to have the captain shake him as a reminder. The armed men took notice of the Avenger's presence and looked at what, or rather whom, he was carrying.

"He's got the weapon!" One of the men yelled, which made the captain stiffen with anger and disbelief. 'Weapon? WEAPON? That's what they think of him? That's all they think of him as? I can't believe that Peter would be fine living with this kind of treatment.' angry thoughts against these people began to run through the Avenger's mind.

Instead of saying anything, the man just calmly set Peter down in a corner and turned to fight the men. It didn't take long for all of them to be out. It actually seemed a bit too easy. Maybe it was because his anger fueled him to fight harder, or maybe it was just because they, as Peter had said, do actually want Peter to be taken in by the Avengers for some reason. Whatever it was, the soldier was just happy he didn't have to waste too much time with these people. The captain decided to move on from his thoughts and instead move to pick up Peter and find an exit.


	9. Officially Meeting the Team, Kind Of

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick chapter to celebrate the trailer release for Spider-Man Homecoming! I would have updated last night, but I didn't get to bed until 1:30 in the morning, sooooo...  
> Anyways, let me know your thoughts on the trailer, and let's get on with the story!  
> Disclaimer: I don't own anybody! Rights go to Sony, Marvel, and Disney.

"So, the question is, how are we going to do this?" the captain looked between his motorcycle and the young man in his arms, who began to open his mouth and eyes, only to have the soldier stop him, "Wait. We are still outside the tower. They could still potentially see you." In return, Captain America saw the other man's lips twist into a slight smile, and he knew what the other was thinking, 'Well, if Peter's supposed to make everyone think that he's out like a light, then everyone around thinks that Captain America is talking to himself.' And there were pedestrians nearby, given the fact that they were obviously still in the city, to think just that.

"I'll just try to kind of place you on the bike and hold you so you don't fall over." Peter felt himself being sat on the bike, soon followed by large arms wrapping around him, "I only have one helmet, since I, you know, wasn't exactly expecting to run into you like this... So, I'll put it on you."

As soon as the helmet was put on, the worried voice of Peter spoke up, "You should wear it."

"But you could fall of if I don't hold onto you right. And by the way, you shouldn't be talking right now." The soldier hushed Peter.

Peter had the refrain himself from shrugging, "They can't see my mouth moving with the helmet in the way, which is also muffling my voice so you are really the only one that could really hear me. If anyone should stop talking, it's you. It kind of gets suspicious when Captain America begins to talk to himself."

"I could be talking on my comm with the team."

"True, except you are not exactly doing the typical 'I'm talking over a comm' kind of motions. Anyways, that's not what I am really concerned about right now. I mean, I am, but we are swerving away from my original topic. I don't slip, so you don't have to worry about putting a helmet on me. You should wear it."

"I'm going to worry about you either way. I mean, I got my 'costume' helmet. It's not really for morticycles, but it works. Besides," Peter could see the other man smirk through the helmet he was wearing as the soldier started the engine, "you're supposed to be unconscious, so how could I possibly know that you don't slip?"

Once they arrived at their destination, the soldier moved to pick the younger man up, only to be stopped by a, "Wait!" that escaped the young man's lips.

"What?" The war hero questioned.

"You should have someone scan my body, just in case. You know, before we go into where all the Avengers are currently hanging their capes."

"I'm sure they wouldn't attach and explosive to you. You're too valuable to them."

"But they have been working with my blood for years. They could have created some sort of airosol that could harm you guys and not me and somehow have implanted it into me so it can go off while I'm with you all."

The blonde shook his head, "I don't think so, but we can check if it will relax you." Peter nodded.

About thirty minutes later, the billionaire in a metallic suit arrived, aiming his repulsers at the youngest of the three.

"Don't shoot!" The captain exclaimed.

"Seriously, Capsicle? When will you actually let me shoot him?" The billionaire groaned.

The soldier shook his head, "He's not a bad guy. Just extremely naive and..."

"Hey, I'm right here!" a voice came from the helmet.

The war hero took off his helmet and took his fellow Avenger to the side and spoke in a hushed tone, "He's just confused. He's been brought up to believe we are the bad guy-"

"Doesn't that make him a threat?"

Steve shook his head, "No, no. He's coming to realize that we are good guys. He still may not recognize Oscorp as evil, but it is a step in the right direction. Just let him stay with us for a while. I think he's a good guy." The heroes both glanced at Peter, "Just don't tell Fury."

"I though we had all agreed before not to tell him anyways."

A smile appeared on Steve's face, "Yeah, but since when do you ever listen?"

"True, but when choosing between listening to you and doing as Fury may want, I always choose the former. So, what do we do now?"

"Well, first he wants you to scan him. In case Oscorp planted some biological weapon on him to harm us without him knowing."

"Will do." The man in the metal suit walked over to the youngest man, who still sat on the morticycle with the helmet on. After a few minutes of some movement, the Avenger turned to Steve, "He's clean." And with that, they brought him into the building.

Once inside, Steve put Peter down and both men took off their helmets. Steve walked farther into the large apartment, which was probably about the size of an average house, if not bigger. Peter simply followed awkwardly behind.

"So..." Tony stood in the living room area, arms crossed.

"So..." Peter mimicked.

"Well..." Steve began.

"Well..." Tony and then Peter followed in suit.

"Stop doing that!" Steve rolled his eyes, "I think I should get Peter all set up. It's getting late and I am kind of tired. We can discuss what's going on in the morning."

"Ooh! Can he stay in my room? I can sleep in the vents above him!" Clint exclaimed from behind Peter.

"Geeze!" Peter jumps in shock and turned to Clint, "Are you always sneaking up on and scaring the living daylights out of people?"

"Nah," Clint waved his hand, "that's Nat's job."

"Speaking of whom, where is she?" Bruce appeared, causing another jump from Peter, along with a chuckle from Tony, Steve, and Clint.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. briefing." Clint shuddered and Peter made a face at the named organization, "Glad I got out of that. So, Peter, my room?"

Peter didn't say anything, so Tony spoke, "I think he's a little creeped out by the idea of you sleeping in the air vents above the bed he's sleeping in. Just think about it. Besides, I bet Steve would appreciate having Peter by his side more." the billionaire smirked at the soldier.

"I-uh-uh- wherever you want to go, Peter." Steve appeared frazzled for a second.

"I'm cool with wherever. I shouldn't be complaining about where I'm stuck, with me completely crashing in here." Peter simply shrugged, "Though, I must ask, where or how did you get my name?"

"Long story for tomorrow." Clint stretched, "For now, let's all just get tooooo beeeeeed!"

"Fine. Peter, Steve's room. There, that's settled. Now, if Steve wants to show you around, whatever, but I'm joining Clint in his quest."

"Sorry, buddy, only room for one in my bed here. We can't do that tonight." Clint stuck out his tongue.

"Ew! No, that's not what I meant, and you know that. You know what? Nevermind, I'm going to bed now." Tony headed to his room.

"Better not catch you sneaking into my room tonight!" Clint called after him.

A "Goodnight!" was all the archer recieved in response. Okay, that and a certain finger might have possibly also been shot up in the air.

Clint chuckled, "He's so fun to mess with. Easy target." He turned to Peter, "Going to have to catch you up on a lot of pranks that you missed out on in your teenage years." The smile widened on his face.

"Oookay!" Steve clapped his hands together, "Why don't we head to the room and get you all situated, Peter? You know, before Clint gets you into a situation where Tony will actually try to kill you. Emphasis on try." Steve smiled back at Clint as he pushed Peter toward his room.

Once they entered the room, Peter took a look around. It was simple, really, but impressive in comparison to where he had to stay in the bunker. There was a large window opposite to the door, with long blue curtains. There was a twin size bed in the middle of the walk to Peter's right, as he faced in. Bedside tables, bookshelf, a small closet, pretty much the usual bedroom stuff, but Peter still walked around in wonder.

The first thing he walked to was the bookshelf, where he began to examine the books. There was not much there, but it was once again more impressive than what he had had in his bunker.

"You like to read?" Steve asked as Peter picked up a copy of Of Mice and Men, and began to examine the cover.

Peter nodded, "Yeah, but there were only a few books at the bunker. I ended up having to read the same few novels over and over again. I guess they did not want to fill my brain with ideas that are not 'important'."

Steve nodded, "You can read what I have in the shelf. Mostly classics, but Tony has been shoving some of that Harry Potter stuff into my shelves. He claims that I am uncultured if I don't read them. I guess I'll have to do some catching up myself. Maybe we can go to the library or bookstore one day?"

Peter nodded as he continued to examine the bookshelf's contents, "I don't know where to start!"

"Start with the oldest. It's kind of cool to see how even the classics took inspiration from others."

Peter, picking through the shelf finally took out The Scarlet Letter.

"Ah, Nathaniel Hawthorne. I remember that one." Steve smiled.

"No spoilers!" Peter exclaimed, and Steve motioned as is he was zipping his mouth closed.

"Anyways, I'm going to get the bed all set up for you-"

"Where are you sleeping?" Peter inquired.

"The floor." Steve shrugged.

"There's no need! I can make a web-hammock to sleep in."

"A what?"

"Web-hammock. I'll use the webbing in my webshooters to make it. And don't worry, should be easy to clean up."

"Are you sure? I'm completely capable of sleeping on the f-"

"Yeah, I'm fine! I've always wanted to do it, and Norman never let me. Now's my chance." Peter walked over to the edge of the room, by the window, and made a hammock out of the webbing, "See?"

"Okay, as long as your okay with that..." Steve walked over with a pile of blankets and two pillows, "Now, here's some blankets. I think they'll be sufficient for the night. If not, just throw the extra pillow at me when you get cold."

"Thanks, though you probably don't need to worry. Spider DNA is running through me right now, I should be fine." Peter smiled.

"Okay, well, I'm going to head off and get changed into more appropriate attire for bed. You can dig through my top two drawers for something to wear. They'll probably be a bit big, but everyone else is probably asleep at this point, so..."

Peter nodded, "Yep, gotcha. I'll look through." Steve smiled and nodded as he left through the door. Not much later, both of them were in their respective spots, sound asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know. Chapter was a bit awkward with everyone. The constant "Soooooo" pretty much reflected what I was saying to myself as I tried to construct this chapter. On the bright side, the next chapter is already written up, and is my longest ever. So, you have that to look forward to!


	10. Peter Loves Chcolate!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Spider-Man, the Avengers, or any of their characters. Or Star Wars or Minority Report. Those all belong to their respective companies. I also do not own Snow Caps (Okay, I have seven boxes at home, but I don't own the rights to their production).  
> Now, let's get on with the story!

-Fifty Minutes Later-

Steve woke up to a, "Shit!" and a thump on the ground.

"Peter? Are you okay?" He stumbled out of his blankets and moved to turn on the lamp by his bed. Once the room was illuminated, Steve saw Peter on the floor, under where his web hammock used to be, tangled in his blankets.

"Yep, I'm fine. Just forgot that my webbing dissolves in an hour. Silly me." Peter chuckled.

"You want to go on the bed now? I'll sleep on the floor."

"Nah. I'm fine. The floor more closely relates to what I slept in in the bunker. It's actually pretty comfy."

"Heh. That's actually similar to what I said after I came out of ice. The beds here felt too soft in comparison to what I slept in while I was in the army."

"You were in the army?"

"Yeah, you didn't know that? I thought they would stuff your brain with information on all of us."

"They did." Peter looked down, "I guess it just wasn't everything."

Steve nodded, "They probably had their reasonings." When Peter didn't say anything, he then said, "We should probably get back to sleep. It's 1:00 in the morning, and I usually go for a 5:00 run." Silence, "You want to join me?"

"Yeah, sure. Guess it would be a good chance to stretch my legs..."

"Okay, well I'll make sure you get up then. We can make pancakes."

"Pancakes?"

"Yes, pancakes. Don't tell me that you've never had pancakes before." Peter shook his head in response, and Steve tsked, "Such a cruel world you've lived in. We'll fix that up as soon as we get up." Steve smiled, and Peter nodded. Not too long after, both were sound asleep, once again.

-The Next Morning-

Peter's eyes were wide at the sight of the pancakes. The looked and smelled amazing, and Steve added some special ingredients to it as well.

"What did you add into those, again?" Peter questioned.

"Different things for each, but these..." Steve slid a couple of pancakes onto a plate, handing them to Peter, "Have chocolate chips."

"Hmm. I heard that chocolate is good." Peter stabbed his fork and knife into the pancakes, and then took a bite.

"Wait, so you've never had pancakes or chocolate before? Now I understand why you are such an aggressive person. I may be able to forgive you for your actions out of sympathy for your suffering." Tony sat next to Peter.

"He only seems aggressive to someone of your lesser ability. To me, he just seems like a teddy bear that has some kick to it." Clint commented, resulting in a huff from Tony.

"So, Peter, how are they?" Steve asked.

Peter, mouthful of pancakes looked up and replied, "Great!" before diving back into the plate for more, recieving a laugh from the men around him.

"Wait, so what the heck is Tony doing up at this hour?" Clint asked, eyeing the billionaire.

"Probably the same as you, getting too nosy and interested in our guest." Steve flipped a pancake.

"Hey, I'm usually up at this hour!" Clint protested.

"Yeah, but you're usually in the ducts, trying, and failing, to find the right moment to jump out in scare me."Steve smiled.

"Haven't done that in a while, Cap." Clint looked down.

"Probably because last time he accidentally jumped out in front of Nat instead of Steve." Tony elbowed Peter in the side, laughing.

"I don't really remember what happened after that. I think I kind of blacked it all out..." Clint tapped his chin in thought, earning a small chuckle from Peter.

Steve looked at his watch, "Well, we better get going, Peter. It's going to get really warm and busy if we don't get moving soon." The man flipped the last pancake, which was blueberry, onto Peter's plate.

"Let's just hope that he doesn't throw that all up." Clint commented, upon realizing the enormous stack of pancakes that Peter ate on his own.

"We are currently stationed in the ugliest part of New York. A little vomit off the side of the road wouldn't stick out grossly." Tony shrugged.

"You guys are making me really excited about going out today." Peter stated, as he shoved the last piece of pancake in his mouth.

"Don't worry, Peter." Steve handed the younger man a pair of sneakers, "I'm taking you to Central Park. It's much nicer there." Peter nodded as the two began to head out, "See you all later!" Steve called back.

-1 1/2 Hours Later-

"I usually get this run down in under an hour," Steve informed Peter as they jogged along together, "but I figured that I better slow down for you." He smiled.

"Oh? You were slowing down for me? I was slowing down for you!" Peter laughed, "I didn't want to make you feel any worse after kicking your butt yesterday. Besides, I don't know New York as well as you."

"Kicking my butt yesterday?"

"Yeah, I had to let you win."

"And I had to let you escape so you could do that."

"Bull!" Peter laughed.

Steve smirked as they turned a corner, "Okay, so there's the apartment a few blocks down. Why don't we race. Winner is the superior enhanced individual?"

Peter returned the smirk, "You're on!" and took off running.

"Hey! You little cheat! I didn't say to start!" Steve chased after.

"Sorry, they didn't teach fair play in the bunker!" Peter called back, "They only taught me to beat you!"

They both arrived at the apartment building at roughly the same time. Steve wrapped his sweaty arm around Peter's shoulder, and Peter, in return, made a face at the taller man's smell and gross flow of sweat.

"If you didn't cheat, I clearly would have won based off the fact that I caught up. I could only do that if I was faster." Steve informed.

"Okay, first, I slowed down because I felt bad. Second, you did not catch up with me, you were a good second or two behind, and I barely started before you." Peter smiled.

"Sure, sure. Whatever makes you happy, you little cheat. I won't bust you too much about this only because you are just getting used to the outside world." Steve tried to put up a serious scolding face, "But I am still very disappointed in your decision to cheat. It has broken my heart and torn a hole in our friendship."

"I think you'll recover." Peter patted the taller man on the back, before turning to see one of the building janitors, eyeing them. Something about the janitor made Peter uncomfortable. Maybe it was the way he was looking at the pair, or it was the fact that the observer looked familiar. Whatever it was, Peter wanted to get out of the man's sight, "Let's head upstairs before we stink up the lobby."

"Good idea." Steve's smile shone on, "I drive Tony insane when I go in smelling like this. Maybe with the two of us, he'll be driven out of the apartment!"

"And they say that you are the sweet, innocent Avenger." Peter tsked as he headed for the stairs.

"They are all severely mistaken. That's probably, no definitely, is Bruce." Steve laughed as he followed Peter up the stairs.

Once the pair entered the apartment, they took turn taking showers and then getting changed. Peter, finishing after Steve, went out into the living room to find the Avengers speaking in hushed tones.

"Let him warm up to us before you start interrogating him!" He heard Steve say.

"He seems to have gotten pretty close to you already." Tony commented, "And we're not going to interrogate him. Just ask a couple of questions. We kind of need to know what's going on right now."

"Then ask me them." Peter said, making the group aware of his presence, "But I can't say I'll answer them all. I should remind you of the fact that I still believe that the people at Oscorp are the good guys."

"Well, you are hugely mistaken." Clint replied, earning a kick from Natasha.

"Look, let's not argue right now. He's made it clear which side he's on, and he's sticking to it, for now." Bruce spoke up, looking at Peter, "Is there anything you can tell us?"

Peter sighed, "Just that you're going to have a hard time taking Mr. Osborn down."

"Why's that?" Natasha asked.

"Sure, he's in deep," Peter shrugged, "but he's careful not to leave any evidence of his hand being in any of this behind. While, as far as I am aware, your government is corrupt, I do believe that you still have systems in place where evidence is needed to condem a person."

"What about video footage?" Tony questioned, "I know there where cameras in the basement, and Norman would have had to go visit you at some point."

"All erased. The moment they decided to tell you guys where we were at, they deleted any video footage that could get him in trouble." Peter simply stated.

"Well, I find it hard to believe that people would find him innocent, knowing that he owned the building sitting on top of that bunker." Clint pointed out.

"But we have no proof of him knowing anything about what was going on. He can lie his way through everything, saying that he was never present enough to know about those hidden projects in his company." Natasha informed, "Probably would claim that he has to spend a lot of time at home and in doctors' offices."

"Why would he claim that he spends his time in a doctor's office?" Peter raised an eyebrow.

The entire team turned to him. Bruce was the first to speak, "He has a fatal illness that has been eating away at him from the moment he was born. The man has been known to be on a frantic search for a cure ever since he started his company."

"He never told me that." Peter said quietly, looking at his feet.

"Probably just a ploy to help cover his butt." Tony rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat.

"Possibly." Peter said flatly. Less than a minute later, he felt an arm reach around him and a hand squeeze his shoulder. Looking up, Peter saw Steve give a comforting smile to the younger man.

Bzzz! Bzzzz!

"Ugh! It's the pirate! Steve, don't make me answer!" Tony groaned. Steve rolled his eyes and gave Tony a look. Tony, groaning once again, reached to pick up his phone, "What's up?" Pause, "Okay." Another pause, "Yep. Okay." Another pause, "Yeah, yeah. Don't need to nag, Mad-Eyed Moody." Another pause, "No, I would not like to be shot in the kneecap." And yet, another pause, "Yes, I will stop calling you names in reference to movies. Now, bye!" And with that, he hung up.

Peter turned to Steve, "Who's 'Mad-Eyed Moody'?" Steve, in turn, just shrugged.

Tony, in complete horror, turned to Peter, "Mad-Eyed Moody? Harry Potter?" He just revived a confused look and a shrug, "One of the greatest movie series of all time?"

"I've never seen any movies before." Peter shrugged.

Tony placed a hand on his heart, "You poor soul!" He turned to Steve, "That's it, while we are gone, you two are going to to get candy and popcorn and catching up on movies."

"While you guys are gone?" Steve questioned.

"Fury has us going out on a mission, but I figured someone had to stay with him." He nodded to Peter, "You seemed like the best contender, since he appears to like you the most. And, you know, both of you are way behind in movies."

"Okay, but I will want a full mission report when you return." Steve instructed.

"Yes, sir." Tony mock-saluted the soldier as he passed by to get his suit, "Now, you two go get some candy!" The billionaire threw a wallet back at the pair of uncultured people, who just shrugged and headed out the door.

-At the candy store-

Peter's eyes widened in amazement, earning a chuckle from Steve. In confusion as to why the man was laughing, Peter asked, "What?"

"Now I know what my face looked like when I was defrosted." The man smiled, "With everything so new a shiny... Amazing, isn't it?"

"Yeah..." Peter sighed, "I don't know where to start!"

"Anywhere. Try a few things out. Whatever you don't get now, we can get later..." Steve looked down and spoke his next words a little more quietly, "If you stick around."

Peter just nodded in response and began to move around the store, eyes taking a moment to observe every type of candy.

"You need help finding anything?" a voice behind Peter asked.

Peter turned around to face the voice with a smile, "I have no idea." He admitted, "I don't know what to look for!" He looked over the worker's shoulder to see Steve staring at some sweets in a glass case at the opposite side of the room.

The other man, whose name is Harry, based off of what Peter read on his name tag smiled, "Yeah, I guess it's a lot to look at. Are you a chocolate fan? You look like you would like chocolate." Peter nodded enthusiastically, earning a chuckle from Harry, "Follow me."

Harry took Peter farther back into the store. They stopped at a counter, which Harry walked behind and pulled out a tray, "Now, I'm not really supposed to do this," Harry smiled, "but I couldn't let you suffer in this madness." On the tray, there was an arrangement of different types of chocolate candies, "Try one."

"Are you sure?" Peter furrowed his brows.

"Yeah, they're the cheap stuff. You know, Snow Caps, etc. The classics. I just poured them out in a way to make them look fancy." Harry smiled and winked, "And impress any cute guy or girl that may be unlucky enough to be dragged back here by me."

Peter blushing, though unsure why, took a piece of candy from the middle of the tray and plopped it in his mouth, letting out an, "Mmmm."

Harry laughed, "You act like it's such new, special candy. Though, that was just from a regular candy bar." Peter shrugged, still happy with his find. Harry picked up a piece and handed it to Peter, "Here, try this one. It's a favorite of mine." Peter obeyed and was instantly surprised by its taste, which showed on his face, "It has mint, little kick to it if you never really eat mints."

"It's good though." Peter commented, and Harry nodded in agreement.

All throughout this, Steve stayed on the other side of the store. At first he was looking at candy, but now he was on the phone.

"You got nothing to worry about, Capsicle." The billionaire on the other end of the line informed, "We were all doing our stuff long before the team was formed and you lead us."

"Yes, but this is a sensitive matter. It needs to be dealt with carefully." The soldier replied.

"Because it involves Peter?"

Steve looked at the aforementioned man, who stood in the back, laughing with an employee, "He's a good guy. He just needs to be set straight, I don't want him to get hurt in all of this."

"He's right in the middle of it though. Steve," the man on the other end sighed, "he's going to get caught up no matter what. And once the truth hits him, it's going to be hard. It's going to hurt him a lot."

"I know," Steve sighed as he continued to stare at Peter, "I'll just have to be there for him when it does. I know what it's like when your whole life is all the sudden turned upside down, sure it's not the same situation, but it's enough to understand." Another sigh, "I just don't know what's going to be harder, for him to learn the truth, or for him to accept the truth and move on."

"I don't know, but either way, I feel like you're going to the person that pushes him through either way." The billionaire let out his own sigh, "Look, we need to start preparing while we are a bit out from the target site, so I'm going to have to let you go. Just... Go do whatever with him. Whatever you think he'll need to be able to get through this, to know that you'll be there for him in the end."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Steve fiddled with his sleeve, "You guys be careful."

"I'll do my best. Bye."

"Bye." Steve hung up and turned to go back to Peter. As he neared the back, the man that was talking with Peter looked up and saw Steve. Something about that man looked familiar, but the man turned his head too quickly for Steve to process who it was. The worker then quickly said something to Peter and rushed off without sparing Steve a second glance.

Once he reached next to Peter, Steve set down his goodies on the counter and looked at Peter, "How's your findings?"

Peter, who was squatting to keep his eyes leveled with the candy on the counter groaned, "I don't know, Steve! How can there be so much good food and candy?"

Steve smiled, "I know, it's hard." He looked at the pile that Peter composed to choose from and laughed, "Are those all candies with chocolate?"

Peter looked down guiltily, "You got me addicted after those pancakes. This is really bad. I'm not supposed to be having these things! My entire life, I have been stuck on a strict diet, but now I'm going off and eating all of this!" He motioned to the sweets in front of him, "I think I might go into some kind of shock!"

The soldier bent down to get in level with Peter, "You're so dramatic." He laughed, "Just pick a random bunch of candies and then we'll come back for the others later."

Peter peered at him, "You promise?"

"Of course."

"Okay, then you pick." Pete looked at the floor, "I can't look!"

Steve, with his smile continuing brightly, did as instructed and led Peter to the counter to pay. While they stood, waiting for the woman to scan everything, Steve noticed that Peter looked nervous, so he asked, "Are you okay?"

Peter, who didn't respond, just grabbed an unscanned candy and took off to the back of the store and returned back in an instant, red filling his cheeks. He had come back with another box of candies, earning a chuckle from Steve and the lady at the register.

-Bak at the apartment-

The two walked into the living room and set their goodies down, finding a pile of movies and a note about pizza being delivered, which they could only guess Tony left them. Steve wandered into the kitchen, and Peter followed curiously behind.

Without a word, Steve stuck something in the microwave, and then moved to the door when the pizza guy knocked. Peter waited in the kitchen, watching the bag that was put into the microwave curiously.

Suddenly, a loud POP! came from the microwave, sending Peter back into the island behind him, and then the ceiling. Steve came rushing in, nearly dropping the pizza, and with his shield in one hand, "Peter!"

"It popped at me!" The man on the ceiling exclaimed.

"It po-" the Avenger began to repeat the statement in a question, confused, but then looked at the microwave, "Oh! The popcorn? Sorry, should have warned you. I'm just so used to being the only one surprised by these things that I didn't think to tell you."

"I nearly wet my pants!"

"I'm so sorry! Do you... I don't know... Want to come down now?"

"Is it safe?"

"Yes, it's perfectly fine." Steve pulled the popcorn out of the microwave, and opened it, "See? Doesn't it smell good? Why don't you come down and try one?"

Cautiously, Peter hopped down from the ceiling and plopped a piece in his mouth. The man stood as if in thought, "It's good..."

"But?" Steve sensed the 'but' from Peter's tone.

"Still not as good as chocolate."

Steve laughed at the statement, "Of course, Peter." They then turned and headed to the couch, where they plopped in their first movie: "Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope".

Once they finished, Peter had made a good dent in his candy and was clutching his stomach, "Ugh! I do not feel well."

Steve smiled while putting in the next movie, "That's what you get when you eat a ton of sweets, especially when you have spent your whole life in a strict diet."

"I think I'm going to be sick! And this is all you and your evil, delicious pancakes' fault!" Peter groaned, "But I can't stop eating this stuff."

"I can just take the candy away from y-" Steve reached for the candy, but his hand was stopped when Peter slapped it away.

"No! Don't touch my candy!"

Steve laughed in response and left the room for a second, only to come back a minute later with a trash can, "For if- no, scratch that- when you throw up." Steve explained, placing the trash can in front of Peter, "I don't want you throwing up in my lap."

"Thanks." Peter cracked a smile, and the pair turned back to the tv.

They continued to watch movies, and Peter continued to be sucked into the storylines he was following. That was, until they got to "Minority Report". It was upon the protagonist's realization that he may be working for the wrong people that Peter turned to look at Steve.

'What if?' Peter shook his doubts of Oscorp out of his head, 'No. I'm fighting for the right people.' He turned back to the screen. However, as hard as he tried to push them out, the words continued to echo in his head, 'What if?'

A few movies later, Peter was passed out on the couch. Soon enough, the rest of the team came in.

"Aw." Clint looked at the younger man, "He looks so peaceful." He then turned to Tony, "Still managed to kick your butt, though."

"You know what, Katniss?" Tony glared at the man.

Bruce smiled at Steve, who was unconsciously stroking his hands through Peter's hair, as the younger male's head was rested upon Steve's lap. Steve finally looked at the rest of the team and asked, "So, how was the mission?"

"Nothing special." Bruce responded.

"And by that, he means a complete waste of our time." Tony hopped on the couch adjacent to the one Steve and Peter were on in a huff.

"What do you mean?" The soldier directed his question to Tony.

"We showed up to the site, and there was nothing there." Tony waved his hands dramatically in the air.

"Did you look around for any hidden places?" Steve further questioned.

"Did you around for any hidden places?" Clint repeated the question in an annoyed, baby tone.

"Yes, we searched for hours. Tony scanned for a fifty mile radius. Nothing." Natasha came into the conversation, standing behind the couch that Tony was on.

"Weird." Steve spoke quietly.

Natasha narrowed her eyes as she stared at Peter, "What if we were just sent on a bogus mission to give someone else a chance to get near Peter?"

Steve protectively drew Peter in closer, "But S.H.E.I.L.D. gave the mission."

The spy shrugged, "We do know that there are moles in the organization."

"But to be able to pull enough strings to get us sent out-" Bruce began.

"They'd have to be in deep." Tony finished.

Steve paused for a second before speaking, "Should we speak to Fury?"

Bruce shook his head, "We can't let anyone know we are looking into this. Not even Fury."

Steve looked at the two spies, "Are you both okay with that?" Clint shrugged and Natasha hesitantly nodded, "Okay, so what do we do now?"

"Now?" Tony spoke in question, "Now, we get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll look into this, and we'll have to ask him," Tony pointed to Peter, "some questions."

Steve hesitatantly nodded, "Right, so let's all get to bed-" he began to carefully get up, without disturbing Peter, but Bruce placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. He then left the room for a minute and came back with blankets.

"I figured he should be left to sleep without too much movement. We still don't know a lot about him." Bruce nodded to Peter as he handed Steve the blankets to place over the two, "I figure, for all we know, he could have one of those cruddy, scary lives where any movement of his body caused by someone else may frighten and wake him."

"Thanks, Bruce." Steve smiled to the man, and then turned to place some blankets on Peter. Afterwards, he lifted the young man's head from his lap for a second, just so he could place the blanket over himself without suffocating Peter. He then leaned back, as the couch reclined, and dozed off to sleep, continuing to unconsciously play with Peter's hair as he did so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate), everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your holidays! Anyways, this is the longest chapt I have EVER written for ANY fic, so I hope this makes up for my delayed updates (sorry everyone :( ). We have officially caught up to the last chapter I have written, but I plane to work on some more. However, I will be traveling this week, so there may be some difficulty...


	11. Tony's Walk to Get His Own A** Kicked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! I am back. Here's a quick chapter to settle your hunger. Sorry it's been so long, I've been super busy. I only got to update today because of a snow day. But fear not! I am working on more tomorrow... I think? Anyways, let's get on with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Spider-Man, the Avengers, or any of their related characters. That's all Marvel, Disney, and Sony.

"Steeeeve!" Peter whined, "My stomach hurts!"

"Probably from all that chocolate that you ate." Steve chuckled.

"Why didn't you warn me?"

"I did. You just ignored me and claimed that your spider powers would help you."

"Mm-hm. Or maybe you guys are just trying to weaken me so you can take me down." Peter's eyes widened.

"Please," Tony said from the kitchen, without glancing at the two sprawled on the couch, "if we wanted to take you down, we would have done it already." He pointed his finger at Clint, who just walked through the doorway, "Don't you dare say anything." Clint obeyed, but had a big smirk on his face, "Besides, Steve has a big crush on you, so..."

"I do not!" Steve rolled his eyes, "I barely know him."

"And yet you run your hands through his hair and throw yourself in front of him to protect him from us." Clint pointed out.

Steve flushed, "Because he's a good guy. I don't want him to get hurt on the bases of him being raised by the wrong people."

Peter rolled his eyes, "It's okay, Steve. I believe you. I think Clint is just looking for attention now that Tony is ignoring him." Steve chuckled.

"Am not!" Clint protested.

"Are too." Natasha and Bruce replied in sync as they entered the room together, earning a raised eyebrow from the rest of the team members. No one was going to say anything, though, considering the fact that one of the two could rip them apart and bring them to tears in seconds, and they weren't thinking about Bruce.

Of course their looks did not go unnoticed, as Natasha shot each of them a look and cried out, "Oh my gosh, we were not sleeping together! We both got up early and got coffee." She raised the cup holder full of coffee mugs.

"Sorry, Nat." Clint gave a nervous smile, as he took one of the coffees from her and slowly backed away. Tony grabbed his, and Steve got up to grab some, leaving Peter to collapse on the couch, clutching his stomach.

"What's wrong with him?" Bruce nodded towards Peter.

"Too much candy for a first-timer." Steve smiled as he took two mugs from Bruce, who also smiled at the explanation.

"You all make me feel conflicted about food. On one hand, it is the best part of living. On the other, well, it can be the worst part of living." Peter turned his face into a pillow on the couch.

"Right you are, my young padewan." Tony walked over and patted Peter on his head. Peter visibly flinched, and everyone noticed, but didn't say anything.

"So, I'm guessing our run today is a no-go." Steve handed Peter one of the mugs.

"Definitely." Peter clutched his stomach and sniffed at the coffee, "What is this?"

"Coffee." Clint stated simply.

Peter rolled his eyes, "I know, but what exactly is coffee?"

"Just try it." Tony nodded towards Peter, who took a sip, and made a face.

"It's terrible!" Peter stuck his tounge out.

"It is, at first, but you eventually get used to it. Kind of like Steve." the soldier made a face at Tony, "Or alcohol- Hey! I know what he needs to try next!"

"No, Tony."

"Come one, Steve!" Tony whined, "He's old enough!"

"You are not giving him alcohol. You're going to get him drunk and into some serious trouble." Steve crossed his arms.

"So? He missed out on all of that in his teenage years! Might as well start him while he is still young." Tony frowned.

"I'm going to side with Tony on this." Clint raised his hand.

"No, you're not." Natasha narrowed her eyes at Clint, whose hand went down faster than the speed of light.

"Fine!" Tony sighed, just as his phone rang, "Ugh! It's Fury. You take it, Steve." he tossed his phone to the soldier, who took the phone and stepped out of the room to answer it. As soon as the soldier left, Tony bent down to whisper in Peter's ear, "Don't worry, I'll make sure that you'll be trying some alcohol soon." Peter just made a face at Tony, and then turned to watch the room that Steve stepped into.

Evetually Steve stepped out of the room, but he now wore his Captain America suit.

"What's with the suit, spangles?" Tony questioned.

"HYDRA attack. I'm going on this mission, but someone still needs to stay with Peter." The captain picked up his shield, which sat against the kitchen counter.

"I'll do it." Tony shrugged.

"So you'll have the chance to give him alcohol?" Bruce shook his head, "I don't think so."

"Or demand a rematch, wich he will still loose." Clint snickered.

Tony ignored Clint, and looked at Bruce, "No! I'll just hang out with him or whatever. Catch him up on some more movies."

The captain all the sudden appeared defensive and protective, "That's my thing to do with Peter."

"Don't worry, Capsicle, we'll watch ones that you have already seen. Or I can get him to work on my suit with me." Tony waved his hand.

"Fine." The soldier sighed, "I'm heading to the Quinn Jet. Meet me there when you are all ready!" He headed towards the door,but stopped to look back to the billionaire, "And, Tony?"

"Hm?" The billionaire looked up from his phone.

The captain pointed at Tony, "No drinking." and he headed out the door.

After everyone left, Tony huffed, "No drinking? They're too funny. Of course we are going to drink."

"Sir, Captain Rogers has requested that I inform you that if either you or Peter end up drunk, he will kick your butt." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed.

"Of course Mr. Perfect said 'butt'. He couldn't swear if his mother's life depended on it." Tony rolled his eyes, "Oh, well, he threatens me all the time." He headed to the bar, "And yet," he waved his hands, "I am still here." He pulled out a couple of beers and brought them to Peter, "Try it." He held one out to the younger man.

"I better not." Peter shook his head.

"Come on, don't let Steve get into your head! It's legal! There's no reason why you shouldn't have one. Just try one, it won't do too much to you. I mean, being a first-timer, it will be a little more crazy, but still."

Peter stared at the bottle that Tony held out and, with serious hesitation, took it, "Fine. One." He opened the bottle and gulped it all down, "Woah!" He felt a bit woozy.

Tony chuckled, "Definitely didn't expect you to do that!" He slouched on the couch, opening his own bottle, "We're going to have a lot of fun."

-12 hours later-

"Another waste-of-time mission! What the heck is going on?" Clint threw open the door to the apartment, and turned on the light, "I mean-" he stopped on his tracks, "Oh my-"

"What?" The captain pushed to the front, only to gasp at the destruction that laid out in front of him. Frantically, he ran in the apartment, looking for two individuals, "Tony? Peter?"

"Mr. Stark is currently in the living room." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed.

"Woah! That was one heck of a party. Don't remember having it, but it must have been great." Tony sat up on the couch.

"Tony, where's Peter?" The captain demanded.

"Peter?" The billionaire scratched his head.

"Parker! The one that I left you here to watch over? Spider powers? Brown eyes? Brown hair?" The soldier exploded.

"Oh, yeah. Probably in his-slash-your room." Tony waved his hand.

"Actually, Captain Rogers, I am afraid to inform you that I was offline for an hour. And, within that time, Peter disappeared from the appartment." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed.

The captain threw off his helmet and stomped to Tony, picking him up by the shirt and backing him into a wall, "You hear that? He was taken last night!" Steve's face was firey red, "Because you were too slobbering drunk to watch him! I bet you got him drunk too, huh? So he couldn't defend himself either."

"In my defense," Tony lifted a finger, "he only got drunk after one beer. Besides, J.A.R.V.I.S. just said he disappeared from the appartment. Does not necessarily mean that he was taken."

"You're. Missing. The. Point." Steve spoke quietly and slowly, but angerly, "We don't know where he is or who he's with. And we are in this situation all because you couldn't be responsible. I don't think I can forgive you for this. Ever."

"Steve-" Tony's face turned with his plead.

"I don't want to hear it, Tony." The soldier set Tony down, and began to walk to the door, "J.A.R.V.I.S., please send me everything you can in relation to where Peter could be. I'm going to find him right now. I'll start at Oscorp." And with that, he walked out, and slammed the door behind himself.


	12. The Search

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, all! Sorry this took so long. I've been messing around with ideas, so it took a while for me to officially establish this chapter as the one I want. Anyways, I don't have a lot of time for chit chat, so let's get on with the story!

Peter sat at the edge of a building, staring into the night sky. The city below was alive and loud, but he tuned it all out to focus on the night sky.

"Did you get our message?" A voice finally asked from behind Peter.

"Yes." Was his simple response.

"We don't know how long Norman has."

"I didn't even know that he was sick. I had to find out from the Avengers of all people."

"Peter..." Gustav Fiers sat next to the younger man, "We just didn't want you to worry about it. You already have so much on your plate."

"Do you need me to come back? So you can work my blood into some kind of cure? I mean, I'm assuming that that's what this is." Peter finally turned to look at the other man.

"No. No, you are needed with the Avengers. We have plenty of your blood already. I just wanted you to know what was going on. Norman is currently at his mansion with his son and an army of doctors. We just-"

"Don't know how long he has." Peter finished the man's sentence, softly.

"You should probably go. The Avengers got back an hour ago. Captain Rogers is quite frantically looking for you." Gustav raised a brow, "He seems quite attached."

Peter simply nodded in response, not knowing how to respond without giving away the fact that he cared for the supersoldier as well. He looked down at the city below, and then back up, only to find that Gustav has disappeared.

"Ah. I hate it when he does that." Peter shook his head, "I suppose that I should look for Steve. He's probably worried sick, and I don't want to intentionally hurt him like that." He then turned and jumped off the building.

-Gustav's POV-

Gustav watched as Peter jumped off the building from the shadows. As Peter swung away, he pulled out his phone and dialed in a number.

The phone rang a couple of times, only for a sickly, groggy voice to answer, "Hello?"

"It's Fiers." The man stared at the buildings that stood before him, "You were right, the soldier will be a problem. Do you want me to send in a team to get rid of him? Or to initiate our countermeasures?"

"No, no. Killing Captain Rogers will only bring Peter closer to the other Avenegers, and it's too early for the other plan. We'll just have to tear the two apart." Norman replied.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Gustav turned on his heals to head to the door of the building.

"Fear, Mr. Fiers. We instal fear."

"When would you like this plan to take place?" Gustav opened the door to the building.

"Tonight."

-Peter's POV-

"Peter?" a voice called out frantically, which Peter finally heard after an hour or two.

"Steve?" Peter turned a corner.

A large figure in the alley instantly turned and ran toward Peter, "Peter? Is that you?"

"Yeah." Peter walked toward the man in the shadows, "Yeah, it's me."

"Oh, thank goodness." Steve pulled Peter into a strong hug, "I thought-"

"I'm sorry. Tony was drunk. I wanted to get out for a while, until you guys got back. I just thought you'd be out for longer." Peter buried his face in Steve's chest.

"It's okay." Steve put his fingers through Peter's hair, pulling him closer, "Tony shouldn't have done that. I'm just glad to see that you're okay."

Suddenly, Peter's spider-sense went off. Peter pulled out from Steve and looked around, concerned, "Steve-" Peter began, but stopped himself when he looked into the supersoldier' eyes. Something didn't seem right.

But, before he could Figure out what was wrong, Peter felt a little prick in his neck, and he felt himself falling out of consciousness.

-Steve's POV, One Week Later-

Steve was stressed out to say the least. He had searched Oscorp, only to find that Peter was not there, just a very rude, pissed off security guard. He had spent his time beating up any suspects and walking up and down alleys, calling out Peter's name, but recieving no response. At this point, his voice was rough and weak, his facial hair was well grown out, and dark circles became prominent under his eyes as he had not gotten any sleep since Peter had disappeared.

"Steve." Steve heard the billionaire appear behind him as he was walking down an alley.

"What do you want, Stark?" Steve kept walking, refusing to look at his teammate.

"I-I just-" Tony sighed, "I'm sorry, okay? Look, I understand that he means a lot to you, I just- The team has agreed that you need rest. We'll keep looking for him, but you won't do him much good if you're barely awake."

"I am fine. Apart from the fact that Peter is missing because of you." Steve's face was red.

"Steve-" Tony began, only to be cut off by a bullet whizzing past Steve's head. Several other bullets followed afterwards.

"Get down!" The supersoldier yelled, pulling up his shield. However, before the two could do much, the gunfire suddenly stopped.

"What the-?" Tony looked at where the shooter most probably was, only to see that no one was there anymore.

"Why stop?" Steve frowned, "It's not like he's coming down here to fight us instead, that wouldn't make sense... But why else?"

"To get our attention?" Tony suggested, "Maybe it was Peter signaling us?"

"No, no. Peter has never used a gun before. He doesn't like them. Even if he had used one before, he wouldn't risk shooting so close to my head..."

"Whoever took him, maybe?"

"But why risk giving us a way to track him down?" Steve's brows furrowed, "Something isn't right here."

"Why don't we check out where he was at?" Tony suggested, as he was already heading in the direction of the building, and Steve followed behind.

Soon enough, the two reached the location of where their attacker was. The two's scanning of the area, however, gave them no clues.

In anger and frustration, Steve turned to one of the walls of the roof entrance and punched it with full force. A cry of frustration and pain escaped his lips.

"Steve, stop!" Tony became extremely alert by his fellow Avenger's actions.

But Steve didn't stop, he just kept punching at the wall, "It's been a week, Tony! A week-" another punch, "and no sign of him!" The wall cracked, "I-I don't know-" Steve finally stopped, and turned his back to the wall. Burying his face in his now bloody hands, Steve slouched against the wall and fell to the ground.

"I know, Steve." Tony sat next to the supersoldier, "But we'll find him. It was a while before I was found. You know? After I was kidnapped to make weapons, before I was Iron Man."

"This is not the same, though." Steve's worried face looked at Tony, "You knew that you were in danger, and you got yourself out of there. Peter-" Steve sniffled, "Peter doesn't fully understand what's going on. He can't properly take care of himself."

Tony sighed, "All I can tell you is that the kid is smart. Despite what you think, he knows how to take care of himself. Besides, no one has any reason to hurt him right now, I'm sure that he's okay." All Steve did was nod before looking up above himself.

Suddenly, Steve's eyes lit up, "Oh my gosh!" He flew up to his feet.

"What?" Tony looked up to see what the supersoldier was looking at. Once he spotted it, he jumped on his feet as well.

A littles spider web sat in the corner of the rooftop enterance. On the web was a small note, which gave an address.

"That must be where Peter is." Steve snatched the paper, a huge smile burning on his face, "We must go now!" He turned to re-enter the building, and began flying down the steps once he got inside.

"Steve, wait!" Tony tried to follow behind, "It could be a trap!"

"I don't care!" Steve shouted back, "As long as Peter may be there, I am going!"

However, despite his outward excitement, Steve began to feel a bit dizzy. Blurred spots entered his eyes, and he began to feel weak. His rapid descent down the stairs slowed, and the ground seemingly disappeared. The last thing that he heard was Tony calling out his name before everything went black.


	13. Dangerous Twists

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. Didn't realize that it had been so long since I had last updated. I've just had these chapters sitting here for a while. Guess I should update... Luckily, AP exams, SATs, and all that stuff is taken care of, so I should be updating more often soon... Anyways, let's get on with the story!

Steve woke with a startle, eyes blinking quickly to adjust to the light.

"He's awake." A female voice informed.

"Already?" Another voice questioned, concerned.

Steve began to get up from where he laid, which was on the couch in the Avenegers' current living room, but was stopped by a hand on the shoulder.

"Not right now, Steve." Bruce spoke calmly, "You need to recover."

"What happened?" Steve blinked.

"You passed out from exhaustion." Tony informed, walking into the room carrying his armor in its suitcase form.

"Which is why you need to rest." Bruce gave his friend a concerned look, "You weren't out for very long, so your body still needs time to rest."

"What are you all suited up for?" Steve eyed the attire of his teammates. No one responded, so Steve sighed, "If it's to get Peter, then I'm coming with you."

"You need-" Bruce began to repeat, but was cut off by Steve.

"To rest! I know!" Steve was frustrated, "But I can't, not until we get Peter."

"Look, Steve." Clint spoke up, "We've all agreed. Your attachment to this guy that you barely know is unhealthy. You're going to get yourself hurt. I know that Peter is a good guy that is just currently on the wrong side of this war, but is he really worth destroying yourself over?"

"Yes." Steve simply stated. Then, he got up and grabbed his shield, which was propped against the coffee table, "Now let's go."

-1 hour later, Warehouse by the docks-

"We're going to have to split up to cover all of this ground." The captain looked at his teammates, excluding Bruce.

"I'm not sure that you're wel-" Black Widow began, but was cut off by the supersoldier giving orders on where everyone had to go.

"Everyone clear?" The soldier asked after giving his orders. Upon recieving nods from everyone, the soldier nodded toward the building, "Then let's go."

The captain entered the southwest enterance of the building, which gave the outward appearance of abandonment. The building was torn apart, and the lights inside weren't even flickering. Something about the building, other than the state of it, gave the soldier the chills.

Suddenly, an odd sound caught his attention. It came from a stairwell. He headed toward it cautiously, prepared to hit whatever came at him, but nothing did.

He walked down the steps and eventually entered a floor that was straight out of a horror movie. Spiderwebs and everything.

He headed slowly down the hallway before hearing over his comm, "I've got hostiles in the northeast corner." From Black Widow.

"Same here." Came from Iron Man.

"They must be everywhere." Hawkeye spoke up, "But they just appeared to have popped up out of nowhere here."

"That's weird." The supersoldier spoke, "I've got nothing."

"Then you should investigate the area. They may be trying to divert your attention away from where you are." Iron Man suggested.

The soldier nodded, despite the fact that no one could see, "I'm on it." He continued to look into the rooms on the floor until he came upon one where he saw what appeared to be someone sitting on a chair.

"Oh my gosh!" The supersoldier threw open the door and flew to the figure. He immediately fell to his knees in front of the lump figure, "Peter?" He asked, pleadingly. Peter didn't open his eyes. The captain moved to untie Peter from the chair. However, when he touched Peter's face to remove the gag, Peter flew out of the chair and ran to the corner of the room in a panic.

"Woah, woah." The soldier put his hands up, "Peter, relax. It's just me." Peter didn't say anything, he just looked at the other man with fear. The soldier took off his helmet and threw his shield off to the side, "It's just me, Peter. It's Steve."

"Don't let them get away!" Steve heard a voice cry as the door to the room swung open. Next thing he knew, bullets were flying, and Steve did the first thing he thought of: jump onto Peter to protect him.

Obviously, he soon found that he was hit by a bullet. It had hit his shoulder, and sadly did not come out in a clean shot. Peter, alert as ever, was soon pulling himself and Steve up to get going.

Steve ran with Peter, who grabbed Steve's shield as he headed toward the door. Without much effort, he took the gunmen out, and proceeded towards the exit.

However, as the pair neared the stairs, Peter looked behind and then cried out, "Look out!" Before Steve could turn around, he felt a large arm wrap around his neck. Steve elbowed his attacker in the ribs, allowing himself to be released. He was stunned at what he saw when he turned around.

It was himself. Well, obviously not really himself, but someone who looked a heck of a lot like him. Steve's reflection smiled, "You seem a bit surprised. That's kind of disappointing." He stepped toward Steve, who heard Peter moving farther away behind him, "I mean, who did you think Peter would have agreed to willingly get close to? You know, in order for someone to successfully capture him? I hope, especially after seeing his conditions, that you wouldn't think Oscorp." Steve looked back and eyed Peter, who had his eyes fearfully trained on Steve's copy cat. He then turned back to the copy cat.

"Why are you doing this?" Steve demanded.

"You'll find out soon enough." The man assured, "At least, I hope you do for Peter's sake. You can't help him if you don't know what's wrong."

Steve angerly punched out at the mystery man, but was slow enough in his movements to miss. The copy cat took the opportunity to grab Steve's punching arm to pull him close and then punch him in the face, and then the shoulder wounded from the bullet wound. Steve cried in pain, and used his knee to hit the other man in the stomach, but that did nothing. He soon found himself in the floor being beat by the copy cat, with no strength to defend himself.

Suddenly, there was a loud bong, and the copy cat fell to the floor. Steve looked up to see Peter standing over him with his shield. Peter cautiously helped Steve up and then guided him out of the building. Once they got out, Steve got on his morticycle, and motioned for a peter to do so as well. Peter obliged, but Steve felt his hands shaking as he barely touched Steve to hold on.

-Back at the Apartment-

"The rest of the team should be back any moment now." Steve informed as he returned to the living room from his own room, "I let them know that you're here with me." Peter simply nodded. Steve sighed and walked over behind Peter, who was sitting on the couch, "You should get some rest. You look like you need it. We can talk about what happened tomorrow." He placed a hand on Peter's shoulder, and Peter instantly froze. Noticing Peter's reaction, Steve let go and walked around the couch to face Peter, "Are you okay? You've barely said a word to me since I found you." Peter looked down, and Steve sighed, "Look, Peter-"

Suddenly, the door flew open to show Bruce carrying some medical supplies. The genius gave a small smile to the two, "Sorry, I looked around this place to find that we pretty much had no medical equipment." He raised a brow, "Kind of a silly thing, especially considering our line of work." He placed some things on the counter, and then walked over to the couch, "Peter, whenever you're ready, I can check you up. I'm not going to push you, though, just because I know you probably need a second to breathe."

The doors flew open again, "Someone better set a room aside to out this guy in." Tony's voice filled the room, causing Steve to get up to see who he was referring to.

At the sight of the man, Steve's eyes widened, "Tony, get him out of here!"

"And take him where? We need him for questioning, and the cops aren't going to let us do that on their turf." Tony dragged in Steve's copy cat.

"He is one of the people responsible for what happened to Peter. We can't keep them in such close proximities." Steve spoke through his teeth.

"Fine, then we'll rent another apartment down the hall. But, for now, can we out him in a room?" Tony gave Steve a look.

"Whose?" Steve returned the look.

"We'll put him in Clint's. People can rotate keeping watch." Tony suggested.

"Fine." Steve sighed, "But lock him up tight." Tony nodded and took the man over to the room. Steve turned to see Peter sitting, staring wide-eyed at the room that Tony and the copy cat just went into.

"You're safe, Peter. Okay?" Steve carefully approached the couch, "We won't let him get out."

"Steve, perhaps it's a good idea to have Peter stay in another room tonight. Farther from him." Bruce nodded to the room with the aforementioned man.

"Good idea." Steve nodded.

"He can have mine." Tony suggested, leaving the bedroom, "I have some things to take care of, so I won't be using it tonight. Besides, it's the farthest room from Clint's." Steve nodded and moved to pick up some things for Peter from his room.

Bruce got up and walked to help Steve. Once he entered Steve's room, he shut the door, "And Steve," Steve looked back at the genius, "It's probably best that you aren't in the same room as him tonight too. Just because-"

"That psycho looks like me?" Steve questioned.

"Yeah, that." Bruce sighed, "Even though Peter knows that that wasn't you, it may still be hard for him to be around you and not be afraid. Moments with intense flashbacks to whatever happened to him during this past week."

Steve sighed, "I guess you're right." He looked down, "I just wish that I knew what happened. So I could help him."

"I know, Steve." Bruce placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Natasha and Clint are interrogating- well, whoever he is, right now. We can ask Peter questions tomorrow. For now, both of you really need rest." Steve simply nodded, and Bruce grabbed the clothing and other materials that Steve was holding, "Here, I'll take these and get them to Peter. You just go to sleep."

Bruce began to walk out of the room after grabbing everything, hearing a, "Thanks, Bruce." as he shut the door.

Walking out into the living room, Bruce heard Tony speak, "Peter's in my room now. Sound asleep."

"So much for examining him before he goes to sleep." Bruce chuckled.

"Yeah." Tony smiled, then looked seriously at Bruce, "How's Steve?"

"Not exactly thrilled about having to leave Peter alone for the night, that's for sure." Bruce sighed.

"He really cares about him, doesn't he?" Tony hummed.

"I think that there's something about Peter that makes Steve feel drawn to him. Something that makes Steve want to protect him at all costs."

"Yeah, well 'all costs' could include his life." Tony sat back on the couch, "What are we going to do if Peter goes back to Oscorp?"

"I don't know, Tony." Bruce closed his eyes and shook his head, "I really don't know. Steve just seems really convinced that Peter won't go back, but now that this has happened... Steve's going to hurt."

Tony sighed and then got up, "Well, I'm going to check in with Clint and Tasha. You should probably get some rest or something, Bruce. Don't want a sleepy scientist examining Peter tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'll probably do that." Bruce got up, "Goodnight, Tony."

"Night, Bruce." Tony waived as he headed for Clint's room.


	14. I'm Steve Rogers

All of the Avengers entered the living room in the morning, only to look over at Tony's room to see Steve asleep on a chair pulled up outside of the bedroom door. Some medical supplies also sat next to Steve, as if he suddenly realized that he should probably take care of his bullet wound.

Tony then sighed and handed twenty dollars to the smirking archer next to him, earning a raised eyebrow from Natasha.

-Three Hours Later-

Everyone was finally up and about, including Steve and Peter. Tony, Clint, and Natasha had gone back to where Peter was being held to see if they could find anything useful. Steve was making pancakes, along with other food, with the hope of earning a smile from Peter, who was currently laying on the couch.

Once he was finished, Steve took a plate full of food over to Peter, and waived it in front of Peter, "I figured that you are probably hungry. I've made your favorite pancakes." Steve smiled, but Peter just burried his face in the couch. Steve kneeled down, "Peter, you need to eat." Peter shook his head. Steve's smile fell into a concerned face, "Peter, please." He reached and touched Peter's shoulder.

That, however, was the wrong thing to do. As soon as he felt Steve's touch, Peter shot up and moved to the opposite side of the couch, with his breath quickening. His eyes were wide and afraid.

Steve put the plate of food down and brought his hands up, "Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you, Peter." He just nodded toward the plate of food, "I just want you to eat something." He slowly got up, "I'm going to leave this here, okay? You can eat whenever you feel like it, I just need you to do so, so you can start recovering." Steve's eyes stayed locked on Peter's the entire time. He began to walk away slowly, "I'll be over there if you need anything." Steve nodded toward the kitchen, as Bruce walked past him to get to Peter.

"I'm going to examine you now, if that's okay." Bruce told Peter calmly. Peter gave a small nod, an eye still on Steve.

Steve walked into the kitchen and started on dishes as Bruce examined Peter, starting off with the typical checking the eyes and mouth and all that before moving on.

"Okay, Peter, I'm going to need you to take off your shirt." Steve heard. After a moment of silence, there was a, "Please, Peter. I need to check for any hidden damages." Steve looked up to see that Peter finally obeyed, but couldn't see what the shirt removal revealed. He wasn't too concerned with it, however, until he heard Bruce say, "Oh my-"

Putting down the towel he was drying with, Steve approached the area that the two were in to get a look of Peter himself. As soon as he did, he covered his mouth in shock.

"Peter, who did all of this?" Bruce examined the bruises covering Peter. All Peter did was look in the room where Steve's copy cat was being held, and then back at Bruce, who began to carefully touch the bruises, "Well, it seems that we may have a cracked rib here. And pos-" Steve didn't hear the next words that came from Bruce's mouth. His eyes were focused on the bruises on Peter's body. His face was turning red hot.

Without saying anything, Steve turned quietly and headed toward a particular room. As soon as he arrived, he opened the door and quickly entered and shut the door behind himself.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to come in here." The copy cat spoke.

"What did you do to him?" Steve's anger very clearly showed on his face.

"Who?" The man asked, smiling.

"You know who." Steve stomped over, but pointing an accusatory finger.

"No, I don't think I do."

"Peter Benjamin Parker!" Steve spat in anger, "Ring a bell? The man you held for the past week?"

"Oh, yeah. Him. Nothing that he didn't deserve."

"Noth-" Steve ran a hand through his hair, "Nothing he didn't deserve? Peter is better than the rest of us. He deserves better than what we all have combined."

"If that's so, than why did he betray Oscorp with his friendship with you?" The man pushed.

"Oscorp? You work for them?" Steve's eyes widened, "Of course. You thought we were getting too close, so you decided to tear us apart. By- by dressing up as me and hurting him so that that trust and comfort he feels with me is destroyed."

"Of course, you can't tell him. He won't believe you. Especially not now."

"I'll just have to regain his trust."

"You will fail." The man laughed, "I saw the way he looked at me- at you! He's terrified. Soon, he'll be running back to Oscorp, and they can do whatever they want with him, as long as he thinks that he's safer with them. Anything."

Something inside Steve snapped, and he soon found himself lunging at the other man and punching at him. He began screaming, "What did you do?" over and over again, only recieving laughter in response.

Soon, the door to the room behind him flew open, and Steve felt someone tugging at him. Steve, filled with rage and not fully understanding what was going on around him, wacked backwards, only to find that he had hit someone hard in the face.

It was only when his name was called out that Steve finally pulled out of his rage, and looked up to where the voice came from.

It was Peter, standing in the doorway, looking terrified. His eyes flickered between the copy cat and something behind Steve. Steve turned to see Bruce behind him, with a hand over his nose.

"I am so sorry, Bruce." Steve's eyes were wide.

Bruce waived him off, "It's fine, Steve. I kind of saw that coming."

Steve looked back at Peter, whose eyes now remained on the bloody figure behind him, "Peter-" Steve began, but, as soon as his name was said, Peter turned and ran away from the room.

"I told you," a voice spoke from behind Steve, "he will only see you for what you truly are: a monster."

"Steve, let's go." Bruce nodded toward the door.

"No. I want to talk to him." Steve shook his head.

"Steve-"

"Don't worry, I won't start beating him again." Steve waived Bruce off and moved to sit the copy cat back up in the chair. After a few seconds, Steve heard the door to the room close, signaling that Bruce had left.

"So, what's your big plan now?" Steve leaned back against the bed.

"Why would I tell you that?" The copy cat raised his brow.

"Well, it doesn't seem as if you've got anything else to do." Steve waived his hand, "Given the fact that you're stuck here."

"I'm just waiting. Waiting and planning."

"For what?"

"For your destruction. Oscorp is eager to get their hands on you. There is nothing more that Osborn would like to do than to put a bullet through your head."

"And yet he hasn't even tried." Steve pointed out.

"Not quite yet. But trust me, things are in motion. He is just waiting until you're in a position where Peter is no longer guarding you from us. Mr. Parker may claim to be on our side, but he has clearly chosen you over Osborn."

"Seems like you've already succeeded in driving him away." Steve's voice cracked slightly, despite his best effort to try to hide his pain.

"Maybe." The copy cat tilted his head, "But there are more pieces of the puzzle to consider. We got to have everything figured out so that not only will Osborn have time to kill you, but he will also have time to bring you to your knees and have you spill out everything you know beforehand."

"Well, you're going to need a heck of a lot of time to do that." Steve huffed.

"Even if the safety of Peter depended on it?"

Steve's grip around the bed frame tightened, "You wouldn't kill him. He's too valuable to you."

The man shook his head, "Not as valuable as you may think. The scientists at Oscorp think that they may have a cure for Norman based off of Peter's blood. This cure- it could also enhance Norman, just as the spider venom did for Peter. Soon, Peter will no longer be needed to fight S.H.I.E.L.D., and things will be much easier without him considering how much trouble he has been causing us lately. That being said, Osborn would prefer that we didn't have to fight and kill him. He's grown quite fond of the boy." The man leaned forward, "But if he needs to, Osborn will hand Peter over to Fiers and let that psychopath do whatever he wants with Peter, just to keep the boy out of our business."

"Why would this Fiers guy want to hurt Peter?" Steve felt his chest tighten.

His reflection leaned back, "Let's just say that the Fiers and Parker family have no reason to get along. Not that Peter would know that. He just thinks that Fiers is another ally of Norman."

Steve gritted his teeth, "Okay. Final question: Who are you really?"

The man smiled, "You of all people should know. I'm Steve Rogers."


	15. Back 'Home'

"Where's Peter?" Steve asked, exiting Clint's room.

Bruce was currently tying his shoe laces, frantically, "Well, um..." He didn't look at Steve.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Steve looked up, out of habit.

"It appears that Mr. Parker has left the apartment." The AI responded.

Steve's heart dropped, "Did he say where to?"

"No, sir. He just told me to tell you that 'It's better this way.'" The AI spoke solemnly.

"He's going back to Oscorp." Steve panicked, "They're going to hurt him again. This time, it may be worse. Especially if what that monster told me was true." He nodded to Clint's door.

"What did he say?" Bruce stood up.

"I'll explain later." Steve grabbed his shield, "Right now, we need to go."

-Peter's POV-

Peter was running down the street when a black van pulled up next to him.

"Need a ride?" The driver asked.

"Mr. Fiers!" Peter spoke in surprise, "Y-yes please. I need to go back to Oscorp."

"Of course." Fiers smiled, "Hop in."

-Steve's POV; 1 hour later-

"He's gone!" Steve exclaimed, "Where could he have gone?"

"Oscorp?" Bruce tried.

"I asked Tony to check. Nothing. He's been there for almost an hour just in case." Steve's breath quickened.

"Steve, relax. I'm sure he's fine. He probably just got lost or something like that." Bruce tried to comfort his fellow Avenger.

"You're right." Steve waived his hands, "And he could have gotten kidnapped, hurt, and even killed. He doesn't know what dangers are out here!" He grabbed Bruce's arm tightly, "What if he was handed over to that Fiers guy?"

"Don't worry, Steve, I'm sure that he's fine." Bruce once again assured.

-Peter's POV-

"Sorry that I couldn't drop you off at Oscorp. One of the Avengers was watching the building." Fiers explained as he pulled up to a mansion, "But Norman will meet you here."

"Thank you." Peter sighed as he unbuckled his seatbelt, "It means a lot to me."

"Anytime." The man smiled as Peter began to get out of the van. However, before he got completely out, Peter froze.

"What is all that?" Peter pointed, just now noticing everything in the back of the van.

"Tools... For interrogations." Fiers tried to explain softly.

"For torture, you mean?" Peter gulped.

"There are a lot of things that we do that we don't tell you for your sake." Fiers frowned, "I suggest you go inside now."

Peter slowly nodded, "Yes, sir."

He then went inside, where he was escorted by a group of scientists to a room. He went inside and laid on the bed, closing his eyes tightly until he heard a whistle, and he looked up.

"Harry?" Peter furrowed his eyes at the sight of the candy shop worker.

"You know," Harry smirked as sat down next to Peter, "my room is a couple doors down. But here works too."

"What?" Peter tilted his head confused, not understanding what Harry was implying.

Harry chuckled, "You're so cute." And then, Peter's eyes widened as he finally understood, and he began blushing profusely.

"What are you doing here?" Peter asked as he looked down in embarrassment.

"Hanging out with a gorgeous man in the guest bedroom while waiting for my dad to come home." Harry stated simply.

"Your d-" Peter began, only to be cut off by a voice coming from just outside his door.

"Harry!" Norman barked from his wheelchair, "What did I say about interacting with Peter?"

"But, daaaaaaad." Harry whined, "You locked him up for years and never let him socialize with anyone. Then, you only let him out to hang out with the Avengers. I'm sure there's no harm in me talking to him if they of all people were the first he talked to out of Oscorp's basement."

"There was Gwen." Peter spoke quietly, but no one heard him.

"Fine." Norman huffed, "But Peter and I need to speak alone for a while."

"But then you're just going to-" Harry began.

"Harry!" Norman snapped.

"Yes, father..." Harry slumped out of the room, defeated.

After a long pause, Peter finally spoke, "Am I right in assuming that now that I'm back you will be back to conducting experiments on me?" Peter's voice was hallow.

Norman wheeled closer to Peter, "That is correct." Norman nodded, "We'll be extracting even more blood than usual, so the doctors are probably going to be putting you under more drugs than usual." Peter simply nodded silently in response. Norman shifted slightly, "I wish it were under better circumstances, but I'm glad to have you back home. You're like a son to me, you know?" Peter gave a half-hearted smile, and Norman then turned to the scientists and doctors waiting outside the room, waiving them to come in, "Now, you take good care of him." He instructed the men as he left the room, "I will see you later."

'So much for a real talk.' Peter thought to himself.

"I would make sure that you are comfortable." One doctor said, "You are going to be here for a while."

Peter simply nodded and laid back, he knew the procedure. At least this bed is more comfortable that his previous one in the bunker.

"Are you relaxed?" Another man asked, and Peter nodded, "Okay. We're going to put the first needle in." And they did so. Peter didn't even flinch. He was used to it by now. He's experienced this all of his life. Even as a small child. Though, he guessed that he couldn't complain. There are plenty of children in hospitals right now that find themselves hooked up to machines. Peter can face the same things in order to help them. He just knew that, soon enough, he'd be in to foggy of a state to think or do much, so he did the one thing he could... Close his eyes and wait.

-Norman's POV-

Norman sat outside Peter's bedroom, watching the doctors and scientists work on Peter.

"Is all of this necessary?" Menken asked from behind, "I mean, you've pretty much got the cure."

Norman shook his head, "For scientific reasons? No, it's not necessary." He looked back at Menken, "But to keep him from meddling with our business with the Avengers, yes."

"How do you suppose he's going to react when he finally is brought fully into conciousness?"

"Not well, but he'll get over it." Norman shrugged, "If not, I have a way to fix that."

"Are you referring to our countermeasures? Do you even know that it will work?"

"Oh. I'm very sure." Norman cracked a smile.

"And why's that?" Menken furrowed his brows.

"Because we've already tested it. I'm just glad he doesn't remember. There were a few bugs we had to fix, but I'm sure they won't even matter with this issue at hand..."

"When... How?" Menken scratched his head.

"Trust me. You'll figure it out. Just think about it." Norman spoke calmly.

Suddenly, something appeared to click with Menken, "Oh!" He shook his head, "I guess that would be the best way to test it out. And it worked?"

"For the most part." Norman looked back at Peter, "As I said, there were a few bugs to fix. But, trust me, everything is under control now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, all. I'm back. I'm so sorry this took so long. A lot of things came up, but it's finally Summer! Yay! I also had four different versions of this chapter, going in COMPLETELY different directions, written up, but I finally landed on this, hoping that it would be less confusing than the other story lones when trying to get to that one ending that I have all set up. Wow. Talk about run on sentences. Anyways, pease continue to comment, and have an awesome day/night!
> 
> Oooooh! Also, any thoughts on anything about those countermeasures? I'm curious to see if anyone has figured it out.


	16. Realizations

Norman opened the door to his home to see a very furious Captain America standing in his doorway.

"Well, what a pleasant surprise!" Norman clapped his hands together, "What brings you here today, Captain?"

"Where is Peter?" The captain wasted no time with pleasantries.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what or who you are talking about." Norman shrugged.

"You damn well know exactly who I'm talking about." The soldier hissed, "So tell me where he is before I push you out of my way and tear apart this mansion brick by brick to find Peter."

Norman simply shrugged and said, "I'm sorry, I just have no idea who you are talking about. Maybe you can go to the police station and file a missing persons report. Or check with his family?"

The captain spluttered, "Check with his family?" He waived his arms, "Check with his family?" His voice was loud and his face was now red, and he pressed his accusatory finger into Norman's chest, "You and I both know that he doesn't have a family because you destroyed it. You killed his family so you could take him as a baby and turn him into a weapon and a test subject for your advantage." He pushed into Norman even closer, "Then, just as Peter finds someone he loves and realizes that he wants to spend the rest of his life with- You take her away to! He doesn't deserve that! And he doesn't deserve any of this other bull that you're putting him through either!" Then, with that, the captain pushed past Norman in a huff.

"I don't want to have to call security, Captain Rogers. So, I suggest that you step outside my house now." Norman called after him.

"Peter?" The soldier called out, voice echoing in the mansion, "Peter, where are you? Please, come back with me. I know that you're scared, and I'm sorry. You're not safe with these people, though. I'll keep you safe. I promise. Just please-"

"Yes, security?" Norman spoke into his phone, "It appears that Captain Rogers has pushed his way into my home. I think he has become a bit delusional. If you could please escort him out..."

"Peter!" The captain was now headed upstairs, and Norman followed behind in a panic, hoping security would arrive quickly, "Peter, please." Finally, he stopped dead in front of a room.

"Captain Rogers, I have to ask you to leave-" Norman tried, but it was too late.

The captain's eyes were large, "Oh, my-" He walked up to Peter, who had all kinds of tubes hooked up to him, "What are you doing to him?" The soldier fell to the floor, kneeling by Peter, "He can't handle this. Not with the state his body is in. Not when he was just put through all those terrible things by your men." He gripped one of Peter's hands, "And he shouldn't be put through this, even if he was completely healthy."

"He volunteered-" Norman began.

"You have him brainwashed!" Steve snapped, "He doesn't know any better."

The security finally arrived. Without a word, they grabbed Steve, and dragged him out, kicking and screaming.

"I'm coming back!" The captain cried out as he was kicked outside of the home, "Next time, I'll have all of the Avengers. We will be sure to bring you down." Then, the doors slammed behind him.

"It appears that we'll be moving the time table again." Norman turned to Menken, who was standing at the stairwell.

"To stop the Avengers' attack?" Menken raised his brow, pulling out his phone.

"Only to delay it." Norman took the lift for his wheelchair up the stairwell, "There's no stopping it now. Not with that pesky Captain Rogers. We'll just have to take care of him." Norman paused before saying, "And make sure Peter is kept under. We can't have him interfering."

"Interfering with what?" Menken and Norman turned to see Peter standing outside of his bedroom, leaning against the wall, as he didn't have the strength to hold himself up, "What are you going to do? Kill him?"

"Peter, why or how are you-" Norman began.

"Steve must have taken out some of the needles." Peter stepped forward, "Good thing that he did."

"Peter, you knew that this was the plan all along. We were always going to kill him." Norman wheeled closer to Peter, "You came back to us because you realized his true nature."

"I was wrong. That wasn't him. I was just scared because someone else influenced my view of him. Someone that I now realize is more closely linked to you than what I had thought. I mean, I had always thought that the convenience of the fact that I was kidnapped by the copy cat just as I was getting close with Steve a bit suspicious-" Peter began.

"Peter-" Norman tried to cut in, but Peter continued what he was saying.

"That, and the fact that you apparently did nothing to find me or check on me when I was saved. Not even close to the way Steve did. Now, however, I realize that you weren't who I thought you were, and Steve wasn't who I thought he was. Therefore, I cannot be a part of this." Peter stated, "When you talk about killing Steve, I realize that I cannot let that happen. Not when I care about him this much. So, you better act fast, because I'm going to help him." Peter then turned to jump off the railing of the second floor to land on the first floor. Then, he ran toward the door, tripping slightly as he fought the overhanging drugs.

"Stop him!" Norman frantically cried out, and darts were soon flying toward Peter.

Peter ran as fast as he could, but he struggled from just having woken up with drugs in his system and tons of blood out of his body. He quickly found a dart hitting his shoulder, only for him to hit the ground seconds later.

Peter woke up sometime later, strapped down to a chair in a dark room. He instantly pulled against the restraints with no luck in breaking them.

"You're not getting out." A voice said from behind, "Not until the captain is dead, and we've regained control over you." Fiers finally came around the chair, pulling on his latex gloves, "Mr. Osborn has a very simple way for me to do that, but I was granted some time to punish you while we waited for the captain to be killed."

"The Avengers-" Peter began.

"Won't be able to do anything to help him. They don't even know about you." Fiers picked up a small object from the metal table by Peter, "We made sure that his phone was destroyed, so he couldn't call them. We also put in delays for him on his way back, so that we had enough time to prepare our surprise for him."

"What are you going to do?" Peter gritted his teeth.

"I think you mean to ask, 'What have we already done?'" Fiers smiled, as Peter looked confused, "You forget, you've been out for hours. We've already had plenty of time to move forward our plan."

"Is he dead?" Peter's eyes widened.

"Not quite yet." Fiers ran a hand through Peter's hair, "Though, he may as well be."

"What. Did. You. Do?" Peter spoke slowly, trying to contain his emotions.

"Nothing you should worry about right now." Fiers gripped Peter's hair and yanked his head back, "I suggest you just worry about me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have a lot of time to say much, but I want to know what you all thought of Spider-Man: Homecoming! I finally got to see it today (never waiting this long again- super torturous), so yay! Anyways, have a great day/ night, and I'll be back sometime soon!


	17. Steve's Side

Two Hours Ago; Steve's POV-

Steve was thrown against the ground outside the Osborn mansion.

"I suggest you leave." One of the guards spat at him and then turned to leave with the rest of the guards.

Once they were out of site, Steve hopped to his feet and brushed themselves off. He then walked down the street for a bit before stopping and pulling something out of his pocket.

"This better work." He said pressing a button on the little box shaped object he held. Tony had given it to him to use after locating Peter to put the cameras on a loop. He apparently simplified it to just a button so that "Old man Steve" would be able to use it.

Now, Norman thinks that Steve was dragged out and is headed back to get the rest of the Avengers, but that is not the case. Steve was actually planning on taking advantage of Norman's belief to sneak into Peter's room and get him out. He couldn't get him earlier, as he wasn't sure what Norman had up his sleeve, and he couldn't risk finding out while he was trying to save Peter.

Steve turned on his heels and headed back to the Osborn mansion. Once he arrived, he crept around the fence, hoping to avoid running into anyone. Eventually, he was able to see the window to Peter's room.

"Okay." He told himself, "Peter is right up there. You just need to get to him." Steve took several steps back before running right toward the home. Once he was close enough, he stepped onto the windowsill of the window on the floor below Peter and pushed up. The momentum was luckily enough to carry Steve far enough so he could grab onto the windowsill for Peter's room. He then began to pull himself up so he could open the window.

However, when he did so, he heard some raised voices.

"-I care about him this much." It was Peter. Steve sighed in relief, "So, you better act fast, because I'm going to help him."

Then, there were some loud noises, and Norman screaming, "Stop him!"

'Yes, Peter.' Steve thought, 'Get out of there. I'll meet you out front.'

"We got him, sir." A voice said from inside.

"Take him to our facility." Norman said calmly, "He's going to have to face the consequences to his actions."

"No!" Steve let slip out.

"Who was that?" A voice asked.

"Something tells me that our uninvited guest is still here." Norman growled.

As soon as he heard this, Steve jumped down from the window, hissing as he hit the ground. He then flew to his feet and headed toward the front of the house, only to hear some shooting from behind him. He headed around to the garage, knowing Norman's plan to move Peter, just in time to see Peter being thrown in the back of a small, black car.

He ran toward the car, on,y to find more people shooting at him as the car started. He pulled his shield off his back to block the bullets, and continued forward. Finally, the gunfire stopped. However, Steve soon realized that this was so that the guards could surround him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw the car pulling out of the driveway.

"No!" Steve turned to ram through the men, only to find that their numbers were multiplying and keeping him from getting through.

"Cuff him and then bring him in to me." Norman instructed from outside the group, "I will make sure to take plenty care of him."

Steve felt as multiple men grabbed his arms to cuff them, but he was continuously able to break free.

"Just sack him and then we can all just drag him in." One man said, and Steve felt the men shifting to do as instructed.

Upon hearing this, Steve yanked up his shield, which was being held down by several men so he couldn't use it, with enough force to knock several men out. He then turned to punch and kick the men out of his way. Hands grabbed him to hold him back, but they all ultimately failed.

As soon as he was free from the group, Steve looked for the car Peter was in, only to find no sign of it. In a panic, Steve turned and ran back toward the apartment building with the hopes that Tony would be able to track the car, as he had memorized the license plate number.

Once he got there, Steve ran into the apartment building, and raced up the staircase with no patience for the elevator. He had to get back to Peter before anything was done to him.

Steve sprinted down the hallway, past a couple of janitors, until he got to the Avengers' temporary apartment. He then walked in, ready to prepare his team to save Peter.

But he was staring face-to-face with his copy-cat.

"Wha-" Steve began, but he soon found himself being shocked in the side by some form of taser. He looked back to see the two janitors standing over him as he fell to the ground.

"Where-" Steve tried to get out.

"Don't worry." His copy cat leaned over, "Your team is fine. Completely oblivious to the situation. They think you called them to a mission a bit away from here. They just left behind Dr. Banner to watch me, but we took care of him. The other apartment owners are away as well. We didn't want to make a scene."

Gritting his teeth, Steve tried to get up, and he reached to punch the man in front of him. However, he had no luck, as his fist was stopped. His arms were then pulled behind him, and he was dragged off, toward the elevator. Steve tried to stand up and stop the movement, only to be put down by the taser.

Soon, he found himself being dragged inside the elevator, but he stopped the movement just outside of the elevator and pulled back as hard as possible, refusing to go into the elevator.

"Get in." His copy cat pointed the gun at him, but Steve was getting loose from his grip, despite the taser, "Fine." The gun lowered to his stomach and went off. Steve's fight weakened as he placed a hand on the wound.

The goons finally dragged Steve into the elevator, as he struggled to recover from the wound. Part of him felt that he should get up and keep fighting, while another part of him realized that the men were probably taking him to the same place as Peter, so he should save his energy to help Peter when he got there. He decided to go with the second part of him.

Eventually, they made it to the lobby and out the back entrance and to a van. Once he was inside the van, Steve was cuffed, and the cuffs were then chained to the floor of the van. He looked around the van to see torture devices hanging around.

"Don't worry," the copy cat said to Steve, acknowledging what he was looking at, "You'll have your turn after Peter."

Steve's eyes were wide, "What did you do to him?" He rose up slightly, "Where is he?"

"He's being taken care of." The copy cat chuckled, as he hopped into the driver's seat and the goons sat in the back, after closing the doors, with Steve.

"You son of a-" Steve bit his lip.

"I'd be careful if I were you." The copy cat began to drive the car, "Especially you want to see him again, before either of you die."

Steve huffed as he sat back in the van. At some point, the goons stuck a sack over his head, presumably because they were going to a different location than the Osborn estate. Soon enough, the van finally came to a stop, and Steve was uncuffed, and dragged along inside wherever they were.

"Am I putting him in the same cell as Peter?" Steve heard the copy cat ask someone.

"No. Osborn doesn't want the two interacting." A voice responded, "They'd be too dangerous."

As soon as he heard this, Steve twisted suddenly and whipped his head back to throw off the sack. The goons let go of him in response, and Steve hit them out of the way.

"Peter!" He yelled out, looking for a response as he whipped his head around, looking at the different hallways nearby, "Peter!"

"Steve?" He heard a voice in the distance, opposite of which way he was facing, "Steve, I'm-" then some loud banging from the floor above.

"Peter!" Steve began to run toward the staircase, only to be knocked down by his copy cat.

The copy cat stood over him, "Norman told me that he wanted to kill you, and to only kill you myself as a last resort." The gun clicked, aiming at Steve's head, "I don't think I'll regret telling him that it came to this." Steve held his breath.

"No!" A voice came from the staircase nearby, turning everyone's attention. A small figure quickly took out the two men who assisted the copy cat, and then proceeded to attempt to take out the copy cat from behind. However, he was quickly flipped over the copy cat's shoulder, and onto Steve, who let out a slight cry in pain, as the figure landed right on his stomach.

Finally being near his rescuer, Steve looked up to see Peter, who was currently examining the blood on himself. Then, he looked at where Steve was shot. He appeared deeply pained at the sight. Steve almost grabbed his hand to squeeze it, but Peter was quickly grabbed by the copy cat and thrown across the hallway.

"Peter!" Steve's raspy voice cried out as the copy cat moved toward Peter's form, which was currently struggling to get up.

"They didn't want me to take you down, but now I see that I have no choice." Steve heard the man say as he blinked, struggling to stay awake with the blood loss, "You should have stayed out of this."

"Not when you want to kill Steve." Peter spat back.

"I really didn't want to do this." Steve heard the man say before he heard a zap, and then screaming from Peter, "Now I'm going to have to take you back to Fiers."

'Fiers?' Steve vaguely thought, 'I've heard that name before... He's the man that wants to-' Steve's eyes shot open and he flew to his feet. Next thing he knew, he was tackling his copy cat to the ground and punching him repeatedly with all of his strength.

"Steve! Stop!" A voice called out, and Steve looked back to Peter's crumpled form that was struggling to get up, "You'll kill him."

There was a look in Peter's eyes. Some fear, but also something that made Steve lower his fists and relax. He looked back at his copy cat and found the man horribly beaten, and Steve stumbled back in shock.

Steve looked back at Peter, "I'm so-"

"Steve, look out!" Peter's eyes widened, but it was too late. Steve found himself punched in the stomach and balled on the floor as the copy cat took off. The world was getting fuzzier. It didn't take long for Peter to get to his side, "Steve?"

"You need to stop him." Steve said quickly before he could pass out.

"No, I'm not leaving you." Peter wrapped his arms around Steve, "I can't move forward without you. I won't. I'm going to get you help."

"You're so good." Steve's voice drowned, "That's why I-"

"What? Steve?" Peter shook the soldier, "Please don't pass out. Not right now!"

Peter then quickly, but carefully, picked up Steve. He ran to the staircase and flew down the steps until he reached the first floor, where he ran in a random direction to find a way out.

Eventually, he made it out of the apparently abandoned building, where he found a van. Moving as fast as he could, Peter placed Steve in the passenger seat, and he moved into the driver's seat.

"Well, I've never driven before," Peter turned the key to start the car, "so let's see how this goes."

He slowly pressed down on the accelerator, and began to move forward. Then, he heard a bang at the back of the van, prompting him to drive faster.

"Steve," Peter reached over and shook the man, "I have no idea where I'm going. I need you to wake up to help me. When we get back, you can sleep for as long as you like." Steve groaned, "Steve, please."

Steve finally blinked, coming back into conciousness, "Peter?"

"I'm right here." Peter grabbed his hand, "I just need your help telling me where to go."

"I'm not quite sure where we are." Steve spoke hazily, "Though, I might have as guess." He leaned forward as the two got onto a road in a neighborhood, "Turn right up ahead." Peter did so, and continued to follow directions until they finally reached the apartment building.

Peter quickly hopped out of the van so that he could move to get Steve out, not even bothering to close his door in the process. By the time he got to the passenger's side, Steve was already out again. Peter immedietly moved to pick him up bridal style, and carry him up to the Avengers' living space.

"Bruce!" He yelled out, "Bruce!" He was frantic, "Steve needs help." Bruce suddenly appeared, coming out of one of the rooms.

"Take him to his bed." Bruce spoke without hesitation, "I'll get medical supplies. Go ahead and get his shirt off as well."

Peter quickly moved Steve to his room, and ripped off Steve's shirt as instructed. Bruce came in right after him, along with the other Avengers. Seeing that Steve was in good hands, Peter relaxed and backed off. However, he was starting to feel a bit fuzzy.

Peter soon found himself leaning on Steve's dresser for support.

"Peter?" Clint stepped toward him, "Are you okay?" Everyone, aside from Bruce, who was working in Steve, turned to Peter.

"Yeah-" Peter tried to straighten himself out, "I'm-" he breathed, "I'm-" he tried, but failed to speak. Only seconds later, Peter found himself on the floor, with worried voices surrounding him. Then, he was out.


	18. Recovery

Peter woke up to the smell of pancakes,"Mmm." He smiled.

"I figured that you would be hungry." Peter turned to see Steve sitting in a chair next to him.

"What are you doing up? You were shot." Peter blinked.

"No, I wasn't." A gun was pulled out of Steve's coat, "That was Steve, your Steve. Unfortunately, he's about to become dead. Along with the rest of the rest of the Avengers. Just like Gwen. You failed them all."

"No." Peter shook his head.

"Peter!" He heard from outside his door. The copy cat grabbed Peter's arm.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The shots continued, and the copy cat strengthened his grip, "Time to take you back to Fiers."

"No!" Peter screamed as the copy cat stuck something in his neck, allowing him to seemingly fall out of conciousness only to suddenly find himself opening his eyes to a new environment.

He was laid out in some kind of tube. Peter panicked, banging his fists against the tube, only for it to suddenly open.

Soon enough, he realized that someone had wrapped their arms around him and was now stroking his hair. Peter didn't need to look up to know who it was.

Peter cried into Steve's shirt as Steve continued to stroke his hair and sway the two of them back and forth, "It's okay, Peter. I'm sorry, we realized that you would probably freak out waking up in that, but it was the only way to help your body heal."

"I- I thought that they-" he sniffled, "and you were dead. And they- they grabbed me."

"I'm not dead." Steve assured, "I'm right here. And you're here with me. You are safe."

"And the fake Steve and Fiers-" Steve stiffened upon hearing Fiers' name.

"I'm never letting them touch you again." His hold on Peter was now tighter, "I can promise you that." A pause, "May I ask what you dreamt?"

Peter waited a second before answering, "He killed you. All of you."

"Who did?" Steve raised a brow.

"Fiers or Norman or I don't know. Does it matter? I was in here with the copy cat while you guys were shot outside." Peter sighed, his voice had raised slightly, "Maybe I should go. For your safety. All of yours."

"No." Steve said quickly, "No. You can't. You shouldn't. We can have each other's back, okay?" He held Peter now as if he was trying to keep him from fleeing, "The only way that we can make sure that we are both safe is to be there for each other. Besides, you don't know how to survive in this world on your own."

Peter sighed once again, "I suppose you're right."

Steve smiled, "Of course." The smile grew as he loosened his grip on Peter, letting some space between them, "I am Captain America, after all."

Peter snorted, "You're Captain something all right."

"What did you say?" Steve tickled Peter, "What did you say?" Peter bursted out laughing, and Steve joined in. Peter's laughter was contagious.

"Oh- Please!" Peter said between giggles, "Have mercy!"

"Not until you admit how great I am." Steve said stubbornly.

"You're a great grandpa." Peter laughed, causing Steve to tickle him harder.

"For the last time, I'm technically not much older than you." Steve reminded with a playful irritation, only to realize that Peter had stopped laughing. "Are you okay?" the supersoldier asked, concerned.

"Yeah. I'm just not feeling 100%." Peter sighed. His head rested against Steve's chest.

"I guess that that's to be expected." Steve's head bounced slightly, "Bruce said that whatever they did to you hit your body hard. It's a miracle that you are even awake right now." He lightly touched his hand against Peter's forehead, "You're a little warm." he commented.

"Hmmm." Peter simply said in response.

"Bruce said that I could move you once you have gained conciousness. In case you haven't noticed, the tower is back up and running, which is where we are at. How would you feel if I brought you up to your room and put on a movie right now?" Steve looked at Peter.

"Sounds good." Peter spoke softly, and not totally awake. Steve was sure that he didn't even process most of what he said. Steve then stood up and gently picked up Peter bridal style (he wasn't going to make him walk) and carried him to the elevator.

Once they reached the room, Steve walked in, but then suddenly decided to quickly let go of and then catch Peter. Peter, in response, strengthened his hold on Steve, who just let out a chuckle.

"Don't do that!" Peter exclaimed.

"What? This?" Steve repeated the action, and Peter just held him tighter, oblivious to the pain that was expressed on Steve's face from that action's effect on his healing wound.

"That's not funny." Peter said, though Steve could see him trying to hide his smile.

"Oh, it definitely is. Besides," Steve shrugged as he laid Peter down on his bed, "your reaction was adorable." He then paused when he realized what he had said and tried to hide his face, which was blushing profusely. Peter was blushing too, but Steve couldn't see it.

Hoping to divert Peter's attention, Steve moved to put in "The Princess Bride", as suggested by Tony, and climbed on the bed with Peter. By that point, Peter was back in his hazy zone. Once Steve sat down, Peter's head rolled onto Steve's shoulder, and Steve chuckled. He was sure that Peter was far from fully concious of what he was doing. In fact, he bet that Peter wouldn't remember much of what happened in this time, which is lucky for Steve and his big mouth.

As Peter slept and the movie played on, Steve found himself wondering what his next step was going to be. He needed to take care of Oscorp before they got too dangerous, but he needed to do so in a way that didn't involve Peter. He didn't want Peter to have anything to do with this. The younger man had already been through enough pain, and Steve couldn't bare to see anything else happen to him. If there was only some kind of lead that they had for Steve to work off of...

Right on cue, Steve's phone rang from his back pocket.

Steve picked up his phone, "Hello?"

"We have a lead on some weapons that Oscorp may be selling to some shadow organizations." Fury said over the phone, "This could potentially give us something to take them down, even if it is just for a short period."

"I'm on it. Just send me the details." Steve stood up.

"Where are you off to?" Peter turned toward Steve.

"I'm going on a jog-"

"Steve." Peter made a face.

"Fine. I'm going to look into something about Oscorp. It probably won't be enough to take out Osborn, but it will deliver a bit of a blow to the organization." Steve informed, "So stay in bed and rest, you still have time until you can take on Osborn and Fiers." In reality, Steve is never going to let Peter near those men again, but he needed to say he would so that he can keep Peter calm for now.

"Good." Peter crossed his arms, "I believe that Fiers' face deserves a proper introduction to my fist."

Steve chuckled as he went through a door that Tony built in to connect Peter's room to Steve's. He then suited up after sending a quick message about the mission to his fellow Avengers through J.A.R.V.I.S. and grabbed his shield.

Steve then looked in on Peter to see that he was sleeping hard and smiled. Then, out of habit, Steve looked up, "J.A.R.V.I.S., could you please inform Peter that there are pancakes in the fridge for him to heat up when he wakes?"

"Of course, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. responded simply.

"Thanks." He then closed the door to Peter's room and quickly headed to meet with his fellow Avengers. He was ready to end this. Little did he know that he was giving Oscorp the very opportunity that they needed to execute their plan.


	19. S.H.I.E.L.D.

Peter blinked awake. He then looked around, trying to remember where he was at.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Peter looked for an explanation.

"You are in you room at the tower." J.A.R.V.I.S. explained, "Captain Rogers and the rest of the team headed out for a mission. I was put in charge of watching you. The captain told you before he left, but he doubted that you would remember."

"Well, he certainly isn't wrong." Peter scratched his head.

"He also told me to tell you that there are pancakes in the fridge if you want to heat them up."

Peter floated happily out of his room and down the hall to the fridge. He opened the fridge and pulled out the pancakes, taking off the wrap that sealed them and taking in the smell.

However, as soon as the smell hit him, Peter's mind flashed back.

The copy cat holding him.

Steve screaming his name.

The guns firing. One, two, three.

Maybe pancakes were not the best idea.

"I can't believe that that lunatic ruined pancakes for me." Peter said to himself, forgetting J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Sorry, sir?"

"It's nothing." Peter sighed, placing the pancakes back in the fridge.

"There is also some Chinese take-out left over, if you would rather have that." The AI suggested.

"Probably a better idea." Peter moved onto pulling out said take-out, and then sat at a bar stool at the counter. He knew that people typically microwaved leftovers, but the microwave scared him.

It was weird to be alone. He has never really been alone. At least, not physically. He found himself thinking a lot about much of what has happened recently in his life. Mostly about Steve. He wondered what he was doing right now...

"Hey, J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Peter perked his head up from his food, "Any way you can update me on how Steve and the team is doing?"

"I'm afraid that I'm not allowed to do that." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed solemnly, "Sorry, sir."

"I get it." Peter tapped his fork against his plate.

"I will, however, let you know if anything serious happens to anyone." J.A.R.V.I.S. said, hoping to help the situation.

"Thank you." Peter gave a small smile.

"Anytime, sir."

Peter then got up to clean up after himself, but stopped suddenly when he began to feel pain in his stomach.

"Agh!" Peter grabbed his stomach.

"Are you okay, sir?" J.A.R.V.I.S. asked, seeming concerned.

"Yeah, probably just a bit of food pois-" Peter was cut off by the feeling of stabbing in his stomach. The plate he had in his hand slipped from his fingers, accelerating quickly toward the floor, then exploding into fragments as it hit the floor. Peter grabbed onto the counter as he, too, headed toward the floor.

"I'll call up Captain Rogers."

"No." Peter held his stomach, "Don't. He needs to take care of-" Peter had to stop speaking as he braced himself through the pain.

"I'm sorry, but I was asked to inform the captain if you experienced any problems." J.A.R.V.I.S. announced.

"I wouldn't worry about that, J.A.R.V.I.S." A voice announced its presence, "We'll take care of Mr. Parker from here."

"Excuse me, sir, but I am not quite sure how you got in here." J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded confused, if that was possible.

"It wasn't that hard. I have a ton of resources." The man stepped out of the shadows, and Peter instantly recognized him, "After all," he said with a smile, "I am the director of S.H.I.E.L.D." He stepped towards Peter, "So, if you don't mind, I would like you to come with us, Mr. Parker. We have quite a few questions for you, and I am sure that you have some of your own."

"Actually, I do mind." Peter said through the pain.

"I hope you realize that you don't really have a choice in this." Fury stated.

"Captain Rogers specifically stated that Mr. Parker was not to leave the tower with anyone unless he allowed it." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed, "Besides, Mr. Parker can't go anywhere. He is not well."

"Well, the captain needs to realize that I don't give a damn what he wants when it comes to national security." Fury rolled his eyes, "And we can take care of Mr. Parker's medical needs. I'm sure that we have more on him than the Avengers."

"I have been instructed to take any necessary steps to prevent Mr. Parker from being taken from the building." J.A.R.V.I.S. began, but was cut off by Peter.

"I'll go with them." Peter struggled to his feet, "If Steve trusts them, so do I."

"Good. I'm glad that we don't have to make this any more complicated than necessary." Fury nodded for a couple of agents to assist Peter to the van waiting outside, "We will have to take certain formalities and treat you as a threat, for now. I hope you understand. The people that I work under don't exactly like the unknown." Peter simply nodded in response.

-Steve's POV-

"What is with bad guys and selling illegal weapons by the docks?" Clint spoke over the comm.

"They probably want to make sure that they get them sold as soon as possible rather then trying to transport them somewhere else and risk getting caught." Tony explained.

"Well, it appears that that tactic worked for these guys." Steve opened another crate, "Because I got nothing." Each member of the team agreed.

"How many times now have we been sent out to do something and then find nothing?" Natasha questioned.

"Too many." Steve sighed, "Tony, can you ask J.A.R.V.I.S. how things are going at the tower? I want to make sure that Oscorp wasn't trying to use this as an opportunity to get their hands on Peter."

Tony was silent.

"Tony?" Bruce inquired.

"We don't need to worry about Oscorp." Tony stated simply, "S.H.E.I.L.D. just brought him in."

Steve paused. Then, suddenly without a word, he turned on his heels and headed out of the warehouse. Once outside, he headed to his motorcycle.

A motorcycle and helicopter ride later, Steve arrived on the helicarrier. Not far behind were the other Avengers arriving in their jet.

Steve immedietly headed inside and walked around the hallways until he came across the interrogation rooms, where he suspected that someone would be with Peter. Sure enough, Steve came across a room in which Peter was connected to a lie detector and was being questioned by some agent.

Steve barged in the room, making his unhappiness with the situation clear, and pointed at Peter, "Let's go, Peter."

"I'm sorry, Captain Rogers, I can't let you take him." The agent asserted, standing from his chair to move between Steve and Peter.

"Try and stop me." Steve made sure to get in this guy's space and try to intimidate him.

"Steve, don't." Peter spoke calmly, "It's fine."

"It's not fine." Steve waived his arms, "They just sent us out on a bogus mission so that they could grab you while we were gone. Besides, you should be in bed right now, recovering."

"I'm fine." Peter assured.

"Like hell your fine." Steve shoved the agent out of his way and walked to Peter, who was still sitting, "You're still pale with" Steve brushed his hand against Peter's forehead, "a fever. And something about you just seems... Off. Who knows what kind of damage is going on in your body right now and we are doing nothing to treat it."

Peter sighed, "Steve, this really isn't your decision to make."

"If need be, I can take you by force." Steve crossed his arms.

"You wouldn't do that." Peter copied Steve's action.

"Maybe." Steve shrugged, "Maybe not."

"Besides," the agent once against tried to insert himself between Steve and Peter, "I wouldn't let you."

Peter snorted and Steve tried to keep from smirking. When the agent looked back at Peter, Peter had his hand over his mouth, "I'm sorry." One could practically hear him smiling, "I ju-" Peter had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing, "I'm sorry. It really isn't that funny."

"Are you good?" Steve asked as Peter finally composed himself.

"Hold on." Peter let out one last snort and then stood straight, "Yeah, I'm good."

"Okay." Steve said calmly, and then turned slowly toward the door. However, he quickly whipped back, slamming the agent against the wall. Steve then ran over and grabbed Peter's arm, "Let's go."

"What? No, Steve." Peter stuck himself to the ground, "I thought that you trust these people."

"I do." Steve sighed, "It's just-"

"It's just what?" Peter tried to make eye contact with Steve.

Steve just sighed in response.

"Captain Rogers," a voice said, "Stand down."

"Director." Steve huffed.

Fury looked to his escorts, "Please escort Mr. Parker to his cell."

Steve held Peter's arm tighter. Peter squirmed as the circulation was cut from his arm, "Steve."

"Why are you doing this?" Steve questioned.

"Mr. Parker presents a legitimate threat to-" Fury began.

"Threat?" Steve's face was red, "Threat?"

"Steve-" Peter tried again.

"Have you actually talked to him? Seen and assessed what he has done?" Steve stepped forward, dragging Peter along.

"I have assessed him. That's exactly why he is considered a threat." Fury stated.

"He saved my life!"

"After putting you in danger in the first place. Have you ever considered that he's just trying to gain your trust so that he can hurt you?"

Steve's grip tightened even further, "This is ridiculous. You're just trying to spin this so- so you can what? Use him as a weapon? Now that you don't have the tesseract, you are just going to use him? People have already tried to weaponize him, and I won't allow that to happen again."

"Steve, please let me go." Peter tried to yank his arm out, and when Steve didn't comply, he tried, "You are hurting me."

Steve instantly let go of Peter, but remained between him and Fury.

"I promise you, Captain, we will allow him to go back with you as soon as we can determine that he isn't a threat." Fury assured.

Peter tried to step around Steve. When Steve tried to stop him, Peter said, "Steve, let's not make this more complicated than it has to be. I'll do whatever they say and then I will go back with you, okay?"

Steve stared into Peter's begging eyes before sighing, "On one condition." He looked to Fury, "I stay with him wherever he goes."

"Fine." Fury agreed. With that, Steve finally let Peter go ahead to his cell. Steve, of course, followed behind and then pulled up a chair against a wall so that he could keep his eyes on Peter while he was in the cell.

"You don't have to be here and worry about me." Peter said quietly after a few minutes.

"Yes I do." Steve folded his arms.

"Why?"

"Because it doesn't seem like anyone else is going to." Steve sighed. Peter ducked his head down and Steve pulled his chair closer to the cell, "I promise you that you won't be here much longer. I will make sure of it. You've already been through enough for more than a lifetime."

"Steve-" Peter began but was cut off by the sound of sirens.

Steve stood up and picked up his shield, "Stay here."

Without saying anything, Peter waived his arms around to point out the cell that he was sitting in. Steve gave a small smile and then ran out of the room.

Peter sighed, knowing that there was no way that he could protect himself from whatever was coming, "This is going to be the night that I die."

However, just as he said that, the cell door opened. Peter raised his brow, "Okay..." He stood up and looked around to see if someone was trying to lead him somewhere, but he saw no one. Peter came to the conclusion that this was all a test and that he should therefore stay in his cell.

Most likely.

Possibly.

Probably not.

Peter didn't know what it was, but something was making him want to leave the cell. There was a slight nudge for Peter to get out of the cell. He tried to ignore it, but it wouldn't go away. Soon enough, he felt himself taking steps forward. It wasn't long before he found himself wandering the hallways.

-Steve's POV-

"Do you think it's Oscorp?" Steve asked Tony.

"There's not a doubt in my mind." The avenger responded, "You should go back to Peter. He's going to need protection considering his current condition."

"You're right." Steve nodded as he ran back towards where Peter was being held, "Let me know if anything develops and you need help."

-Peter's POV-

Peter soon found himself in a room that he was positive that he shouldn't be in. There were a ton of files, which all gave off that "top secret" vibe. He didn't plan to look around, but something urged him to look for what they had on him.

It didn't take Peter long to find his file box, considering the fact that it was sitting out, and he quickly noticed that the amount of info on him was very slim. Not what one would expect when considering all Norman has told him about S.H.I.E.L.D.

Peter fingered through a few files but stopped when a name stuck out to him.

Gwen Stacy

Peter picked up the file and opened it. He skimmed through pictures of Gwen with and without him doing random things. Pieces of information about her birth and so on we're scribbled down. He flipped through a few more pages only to pause on a horrific photo of Gwen laying on the floor, clearly dead from a gun shot to the head.

Tears began to fill Peter's eyes, and he fell to the floor. He then proceeded to slowly read through the page to find information about her death regarding the time, place, and weapon used. He stopped at a category at the bottom corner of the page.

"Exectioner"

This was it. This was who Peter had to blame for his misery.

Peter took a deep breath and looked at the name listed by this category.

His heart stopped.

He had to have misread the layout of the page. The name was wrong. It had to be.

Peter fell down to the floor and cried out, but he covered his own mouth to muffle the noise. The pain of this was unbearable. How could this happen?

No, it wasn't true. It couldn't. But here it is, written in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own file.

The name of Gwen's killer:

Steve Rogers


	20. The Jacket

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a jump from the last chapter, I know. It's intentional. I'm assuming that you all can connect the dots between this chapter and the one before.

-Hours Later-

"You can stay in here for now." Norman directed Peter into a room, "I hope you understand why I will be having some men watch over you. After your shenanigans with Captain Rogers and his team," Norman gave Peter a pointed look, "it is hard to trust you."

Peter bit his lip and nodded. Tears were forming in his eyes at the thought of Steve. He could barely hold it together. Norman seemed to notice this, but he said nothing and headed towards the bedroom door.

"I'll have someone pick up some of your old clothes and things from the bunker." Norman informed, "For now you'll have to stick with what you have."

Then, the man left and shut the door behind him. Part of Peter was hurt that the man didn't ask how he was doing, but the other part of him was glad that he was left alone to cry.

Peter sat on the floor at the end of his bed and wrapped himself in the jacket that he wore. It was one of Steve's, which Peter had grabbed before leaving with S.H.E.I.L.D. The jacket smelled like Steve, but Peter couldn't get himself to take it off. He simply cried more as he buried his face in the jacket.

As Peter rocked back and forth, he heard a "thunk!" He looked down and saw a small phone on the floor. Peter quickly realized that it must have been Steve's, and he must have accidentally took it with him when he grabbed Steve's jacket.

For the next couple of minutes, Peter stared at it and wondered if Steve knew it was missing. A small, hopeful voice wished that Steve did and would use it to find him.

'You left him, remember?' Another voice argued in his head, 'He killed Gwen.'

'I'm not sure that that is true. Steve isn't a killer.'

'If you aren't sure, then why would you go back with Osborn? After all that he did to you?'

To that, the hopeful voice in Peter's head simply didn't know how to respond.

As Peter continued to stare at the phone, he considered crushing it. In fact, he picked it up to do just that. However, he stopped himself when looking at the phone a little closer. There was a S.O.S. button on it.

'What if I crush it and find out that I'm wrong? I don't know where I am, and I don't know if I'll be able to escape here on my own if I'm wrong. Maybe I should keep it just in case...'

With that, Peter simply slipped the phone back into his pocket and allowed his head to fall back in his lap.

Then, he cried for the next several days.


	21. S.O.S.

For the next five days, Peter basically did nothing. He sat, he cried, he ate, he slept, he cried some more, and that was basically it.

Norman and the others paid no attention to him whatsoever. For the first time ever, there were no needles, no schemes to kill the Avengers, and no hovering over Peter. Something was off, but Peter didn't have much time to think about it given the fact that he spent most of his time crying over Steve.

Everything was falling apart, and Peter didn't know what to do.

-S.H.E.I.L.D. Helicarrier-

Steve sat in a conference room, staring at a wall.

"Captain?" Fury tried to get his attention, but he recieved no response.

"Steve has been a bit... off since he got back to the cell and found Peter gone." The famous billionaire commented.

"Do we have any idea where he could be?" Natasha questioned.

Clint piped in, "We found a fake file that claimed that Steve killed Gwen. Something tells me that that showing up at the same time as the Oscorp attack and Peter's disappearance isn't a coincidence."

"So he's with Oscorp, great." Bruce sighed, "At least we have something to go off of."

"But it's basically nothing." Steve said quietly from his seat.

"Don't say that, Steve." Bruce walked to stand next to his friend, "We'll find him." He placed a hand on Steve's shoulder.

"No!" Steve jumped up from his seat, "You don't understand." Tears filled his eyes, "Oscorp is always steps ahead of us. When we punch, they punch back five times harder. And now-" Steve could feel himself getting choked up, "Peter thinks that I murdered someone- someone that he cared about. Someone that he loved. I don't think he will ever get over that."

"Steve, we don't know how Peter reacted when or if he saw that file." Bruce pointed out.

Tony stepped forward, "Yeah, Steve. Peter is very smart. He knows that Oscorp was trying to tear you two apart. He probably knows that this is simply another one of their attempts."

"Then that means that they kidnapped him again. Or- he's-" Steve gulped.

"He could be waiting for S.H.I.E.L.D. to clear him so he won't be bothered." Clint tried.

"But why not come with me like I offered, then?" Steve sighed in frustration, "He was willing to stay here." He huffed, "You know what? I don't want to hear your attempts to make me feel better. I'm going to go out and try to find Peter." Steve turned away from the team and headed towards the door.

"Steve, wait!" Tony jumped towards the man.

"You're not changing my mind, Tony." Steve tried to ignore the man.

"No, Steve. The S.O.S. is going off on your phone." Tony informed him.

"What?" Steve raised his brow and began to pat himself down, looking for his phone. Then, he stopped, and realized, "Peter was wearing my jacket. I had put my phone in that jacket before we left the tower that day." Steve spoke slowly as he thought, "Peter's sending us a signal." Steve jumped and grabbed his shield, "Tony, track him down. Everyone else, suit up."

-Two Hours Earlier-

Peter was itching to do something. He had been here- wherever here is- for days and he hasn't done anything other than sit, sleep, eat, and cry. If he didn't get something to do soon, Peter might actually explode.

"-information on Captain Rogers-" Peter's ears perked up upon hearing Steve being mentioned just outside his door. He looked up at the air ducts, considering his options.

'Don't do it. They're testing you.'

'But if they have information on Steve-'

'They're not going to do anything to confirm that he's innocent.'

'Not to my face, they're not.' Peter stood up.

'It's a test! Stop! It's bad enough that you still wear his jacket. You don't need to make Oscorp more uneasy by spying on them.'

Although that part of him made good points, Peter couldn't help but hope for some proof of Steve's innocence. That is why, minutes later, Peter found himself crawling through the air ducts.

"-much time until the product is ready?" One voice asked.

"It's done." Another replied.

"Good. We may have to move soon. I don't know how much longer we can control him with what we currently have. It's not as strong as it needs to be."

"Luckily, we have time. He won't be running back to the Avengers any time soon."

"Don't underestimate his intelligence. It won't take long for him to put the pieces together and figure everything out."

'What exactly is he talking about?' Peter wondered.

"I don't know. If you ask me, he seemed pretty convinced that that file was real."

'They must be talking about that file on Gwen's death!' Peter quickly realized, 'I knew Steve couldn't have killed her.'

'Nice job, genius.' That negative voice reappeared in his head as Peter turned around to head back to his room, 'Now what?'

'Now, I get back to my room and send that S.O.S. signal. I just need to make sure that no one suspects anything of me.'

'Famous last words.'

'Does that count if I'm thinking?' Peter wondered to himself as he hopped out of the duct and into his room. He then quickly ran over to the jacket, ready to pull out the phone.

"Well, well, well." Someone said from behind him, "What have we been up to in those ducts?"

Peter felt himself gulp as he slowly pulled on Steve's jacket. He then turned around and froze at the sight of who was in front of him, "I- uh- was bored. I've been cooped up in here for days."

"So you chose to sneak around in the ducts?" The copy cat slowly walked closer to Peter, "Instead of asking for one of us to walk out with you?" Peter backed into a wall as the man got uncomfortably close, "I would have been delighted to do so, if only you had asked."

Sweat beaded Peter's forehead, "I didn't think that I would be allowed to. This seemed like the best option to me."

The copy cat now had Peter caged in against the wall, "Don't lie to me. Would you lie to Steve?"

"You're not Steve." Peter said blankly, "And he killed Gwen."

"You're right. I'm better than him." The man leaned in closer to Peter to whisper in his ear, "But do you really expect me to believe that you think that he killed Gwen? Especially after what you overheard?" Peter's heart rate suddenly picked up, and the man smirked, "I wasn't sure that you overheard us, but your heart give you away." He backed up to look Peter in the eye.

Peter looked back at the man for a second, only to find himself quickly moving to duck under the copy cat's arms. However, he failed to do so, as the man quickly moved to wrap his arms around Peter.

"No!" Peter kicked and screamed, "No!" He stuck his feet to the ground.

"It appears that Peter needs a nap, but he's having a hard time falling asleep." The copy cat said to someone, "Why don't you get something to help him out?"

Peter threw his elbow back, up in the air, and landed it on the copy cat's nose. The man loosened his grip enough on Peter that he was able to wiggle loose. Peter then turned and ran toward the door, only to see men waiting for him with weapons. He decided to instead jump back up into the air ducts, but he had to move quickly because he was surrounded.

Peter ran and jumped up into the ducts, but he felt the copy cat grab his foot. He was able to shake the man off, but he lost his shoe in the process.

Peter was now crawling through the ducts, trying to come up with some strategy. He could try to escape, but he had no idea where he was or if that was even possible. Peter decided that his best option was probably to sit and wait for the Avengers to arrive.

"Everyone put on masks. We'll have to gas him out of there."

Or not.

Peter began to move much faster. He knew that he only had seconds before the gas was released.

Soon enough, he found himself jumping out of the ducts and into a room. The bookshelves on each wall told Peter that this was Norman's personal study. He liked having one in each compound, and he occasionally let Peter read some of the books. However, Peter was not able to take the time to admire Norman's books, as the door to the room flew open.

"He's in here!" Someone informed everyone else.

'Shit.' Peter looked around for an escape, and he only saw one option. Without much thought or any hesitation, Peter ran and crashed through the window. However, as he was falling, he quickly realized that he didn't have his webshooters. They were still at S.H.I.E.L.D.

This was going to hurt.

A lot.

Peter hit the ground and hissed in pain, but he didn't dwell in it. He had to get moving.

The young man pulled himself off the ground and began running in a random direction. He soon heard voices shouting behind him, which only encouraged Peter to run faster.

Eventually, he ran into a fence. Peter panicked a little, as he realized that the men behind him had guns and could easily shoot him while he tried to climb over, but he quickly got moving. He didn't register what was going on behind him until he suddenly felt himself being thrown, or really pulled, off the fence and landing on the ground.

The copy cat was quickly on top of him and holding him down, "Nice try." He grabbed Peter's face, "But you can't escape me."

Peter wiggled underneath him, trying to get free. His stomach churned as the man leaned in closer to him, "Stay away from me." Peter spat.

A devilish grin appeared on the copy cat's face, "I think he likes me, Norman. I think that I have an idea for your experiment. It will be the perfect way to mess with Captain Rogers too."

"Don't you dare touch or hurt him!" Peter gave out another effort to escape.

"Stop playing with him." Norman's voice came from above, "Get the job done."

Peter struggled to try to get out, but he knew that he wasn't going anywhere. His best bet was to not move too much so Steve's phone wouldn't fall out of his pocket.

"Let me have a little fun, Norman." The copy cat pulled up Peter's arms and held both of Peter's wrists in one hand, "I don't want this job to get boring." He placed a cloth over Peter's mouth and nose, and Peter immedietly began to feel woozy. Spots came into vision, and Peter could barely control himself, "This will just be enough to weaken you, but not knock you out. You don't want to miss anything."

Peter felt as the copy cat used zip ties to bind his hands. He tried to break free, but he felt so weak. He was barely staying awake. Peter almost didn't even notice when he was being picked up and thrown over the copy cat's shoulder.

He vaguely felt the bounce of the man's steps as he walked across the cement ground and then stepped back into the building. Peter felt his eyes drooping. He wasn't in pain, but he was not a fan of this feeling. So... Powerless and drained.

Peter then felt himself being thrown on a cold, metal table. A moan escaped his lips.

"I'm getting a video of this for research purposes, but I may send a copy to your captain. So, why don't you say hi, Peter?" Peter didn't respond to the copy cat. He simply shut his eyes and tried to think about the man that the copy cat just spoke of. He needed to send that SOS signal soon, "No? Fine. Maybe you could tell us how you are doing? You're looking a little under the weather? Sore? Tired?" The man poked Peter, causing him to moan again, "Would you rather tell Captain Rogers in person? I can bring him down here."

"Don't-" Peter said slowly, "touch" He was really struggling to focus, "my Steve."

Sometime later, Peter felt himself being strapped down to a chair. He was finally beginning to get his strength back.

"This is going to hurt." A familiar voice chuckled.

"Steve." Peter tried to remind himself. He needed to send that S.O.S. message, and he needed to do it soon. Peter adjusted his position slightly, and he stretched his fingers toward his pocket. He grunted in frustration as his fingers failed to reach, and he twisted his body slightly more.

"Your Steve isn't coming for you." Someone tapped something metal, "But you shouldn't shed any tears over that. Soon enough, that won't even matter to you."

"What are you going to do to me?" Peter was really just trying to buy time for himself as his fingers inched closer to the object in his pocket.

The man, who Peter assumed was Feirs, chuckled, "Wouldn't you like to know?" Peter felt something being strapped around his head and neck. His fingers were so close! "Let's just say we won't have to worry about you interfering with our business anymore."

"It won't work." Peter bit his lip.

"I'm sorry?"

"Whatever it is that you're trying to do to me," Peter's breath quickened, "it won't work." Peter finally relaxed slightly when his fingers finally grasped the phone. Peter then pressed the S.O.S. and slid the phone back into his pocket, "And even if it did, the Avengers would find a way to fix whatever you did."

Feirs chuckled, "That's assuming that they could find you." He leaned in closer to Peter, "Or catch you before we have killed each and every one of them- starting with Steve."

"No!" Peter screamed out, tossing his body around in an effort to flee. But it was too late.

Before Peter knew it, a machine was turned on.

Electricity filled his body.

And his conciousness fell out of him, rather than the other way around.


	22. Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured that I should get this out since I have something a little more sweet to post for Valentine's Day (though, you may only get it if you see where I'm going with characters). ;)

"Is everyone in position?" Captain America spoke into his communicator as he eyed the building in front of him. Everyone immediately confirmed that they were. Then, without hesitation, their leader spoke, "Then let's head in."

The captain was immediately met by security and gunfire when he walked through the doors, but none of that was any match for him. He took down the men and women effortlessly. He couldn't waste any time knowing that Osborn could be attempting to move Peter at this moment.

"Peter?" The supersoldier turned another corner and entered a hallway containing many doors. He quickly walked down the hallway and opened up each door, as there were no windows to check through. Eventually, he came across a room that contained one man standing over another that was strapped to a chair.

It was Fiers and Peter.

"Get away from him!" The captain grabbed Fiers and threw him against a wall. He then turned to Peter, "Hey, Peter. It's me, okay?" He quickly worked on releasing Peter from the restraints, "I'm going to take you home, to your real home." The soldier finally finished with the restraints and stood over a Peter, "With me. I just need you to show me that you're okay."

Peter's eyes blinked open, "Steve?" His eyes drooped closed again and then reopened. It was clear that he was struggling to stay concious.

The supersoldier smiled and kneeled down next to Peter, holding one of his hands, "Hey." He stroked his hand through Peter's hair as the younger man moaned in pain, "It going to be okay. I promise, okay? We're going to go home and I'll get you as much chocolate as you want. And then we can-"

A small "beep" sound came from the corner where Fiers was currently trying to get up. The captain looked up with curiousity, and prepared himself to go fight the man for Peter's safety.

Suddenly, the captain felt a hand grab his neck. He looked down to see that Peter was wide awake and had a firm grasp around Steve's neck.

"Peter?" the supersoldier chocked out.

Fiers chuckled, "You see, Peter's under our control now." A huge smirk plastered his face, "We borrowed some tech from our... friends to control him. He's is now more than willing to fight- and kill- you."

Peter rose from the chair and held the soldier up. Peter was just short enough in comparison that the captain could still stand on his toes as Peter held him up, but the supersoldier was still struggling to breathe.

"Get out of here before the rest of his team comes- or the big surprise." Peter directed his instructions towards Fiers.

"I will see you later, Mr. Parker." Fiers tipped his hat and headed out the door.

"Peter-" The supersoldier begged, and Peter threw him across the room.

"My sole purpose is to kill you and your team." Peter informed as he marched towards the soldier, who threw off his helmet. Steve wanted Peter to see Steve, his friend, not Captain America, his target.

Steve held up his hands, "Peter, this isn't you." He dodged a punch from Peter, "Please, don't let them control you." Peter swung another fist towards Steve, who chose to grab it and pull Peter in. He then wrapped his arms around Peter and forced both of their bodies to the floor, "Please- just come back with me. We can fix this- We can make you better."

Peter pried himself out of Steve's arms and stood up, "What is there to fix?" He stepped on Steve's leg, causing it to twist uncomfortably, "Other than a few broken bones-" a wicked smile appeared on Peter's- no, not Peter. Steve had to remind himself of this. Peter has no control right now. He's trapped and is relying on Steve to save him.

"Ah!" Steve let his pain show as his leg made some unpleasant sounds. If his Peter was in there, Steve figured that he could draw him out using his emotions. He hoped that Peter cared for Steve to the same extent that Steve did for him so that this would work, "Peter, please." He repeated, making sure that his pain was audible.

"Oscorp shows no mercy." Peter watched as Steve tried to stand up.

"But you're not part of Oscorp, Peter!" Steve tried to remind him, "They're controlling you for their own, sick benefits."

"Even if that's true, that won't change anything." Peter kneed Steve in the gut, "I will kill you no matter what."

"Peter-" tears filled Steve's eyes, "I don't want to fight or hurt you."

"Good." Peter smirked, "Then you'll make my job easier." He threw Steve over his shoulder on onto the floor.

"Peter-" Steve began to get up, but Peter pushed him down, "Please."

Peter ignored his pleas and began throwing punches at Steve. Since Steve was unwilling to fight back, all he could do was lay there as Peter beat him.

Steve felt as bruises and cuts appeared on his face.

Blood began to drip on the floor.

Steve began to feel himself losing conciousness, but Peter kept going, unfazed.

As he felt himself beginning to slip, Steve reached out. He rested a hand against Peter's face and rubbed it gently. Peter's punches slowed ever-so-slightly. Such a change would have gone unnoticed to most, but not Steve.

"Peter-" he whispered, looking into Peter's eyes. Then, just for a split second, he saw something flicker in Peter's eyes. It was quick, but it was beautiful. Steve knew that for that short moment, he had saw his Peter, struggling to come through.

With the last bit of energy he had, Steve smiled and whispered, "Keep fighting, Peter."

Then, he was out.


	23. Safe, but Not Sound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update! This has been written out for a while, it's just a struggle putting up chapters! More should hopefully be coming soon.
> 
> Thanks for your comments and continued support. They are all appreciated.

Steve woke up to bright lights. He moaned at the brightness and shut his eyes.

"How are you doing, sleepyhead?" A voice rang over him, "Did you enjoy your four-day nap?"

"Tony?" Steve blinked, "Where's Peter?" Then, he suddenly remembered the events that occurred before he was knocked out, "Wait. Where am I? What happened?"

"You're at the tower." Bruce piped in, "As for what happened, we were kind of hoping that you would fill us in."

Flashes of that night went through Steve's head, "They're somehow controlling Peter... he tried to kill me-" Steve thought, "I don't remember what happened past him beating the crap out of me. I just vaguely remember- a spark... In his eyes." He wiped his face, "I don't know, I might be crazy, but for a second- just a split second- I thought I saw him... My Peter."

"Well, that might have been more than a second." Clint informed Steve, "Because unless you, while you were unconscious, escaped Peter and crawled all the way out and into my car, Peter must have pulled through to save you."

"You mean," Steve licked his lips, "none of you were the ones to bail me out?"

"No." Clint shook his head.

"To be completely honest, we thought that we lost you in the explosion that occurred at the building. Which reminds me of another miracle..." Natasha tapped her chin.

"Yeah, somehow my scanners magically picked up signals that they shouldn't have, which gave us a heads up about the bombs placed all over the building." Tony chirped in, "Something tells me that Peter was able to regain control."

"Then why didn't he come back?" Steve's voice cracked.

"I don't know, Steve." Bruce sighed, "I honestly don't."

Something buzzed on the counter across the room, and Tony quickly moved in it's direction, "That's me." He informed the team as he grabbed his phone off the counter, "I'll be right back."

Tony stepped out of the room while everyone else continued about their business.

"I just want to talk to him." Steve sighed, "I need to know if he's okay. If he did save me, Oscorp may have found out." He grabbed the side of the bed, "They could be torturing him right now."

Clint shook his head, "I doubt it. They were looking for him when the explosives went off. No one could have seen him saving you, and any evidence via cameras or whatever would have been destroyed in the explosion. I don't even know if Oscorp knows that you survived."

Steve relaxed back into the pillow, "That's good to know." Then he turned to Bruce, "But is there any way that we can text him? He still has my phone, after all."

"I'll look into it." Bruce nodded before patting Steve's knee, "For now, you need to get some rest."

Steve nodded, "Only if you all promise that you'll look into finding a way to communicate with Peter."

"Of course, Steve." Natasha gave a small smile before heading out the door.

"Get some rest." Clint gave the same smile before he, too, headed out the door. Bruce followed shortly behind.

Then, Steve closed his eyes.

Some time later, Steve couldn't be sure of how much given the fact that he wasn't even sure if he had fallen asleep in the first place, Steve felt a cool breeze whisping onto his skin.

Steve's teeth chattered, and he felt someone pull blankets further up on him.

Steve tried to open his eyes to see who was there, but everything was so blurry and dark. However, he did manage to make out a tall (but not nearly as tall as Steve), slim figure sitting beside his bed. He felt the hand of this person intertwined with his own, while he listened to the steady sound of this person breathing.

Steve squeezed the hand, and he could feel the person freeze upon this action. Finally getting some clarity in his vision, Steve looked up once more, "Peter?"

Then, he was out.

Steve woke up to the smell of warm soup. He looked to the side and saw Bruce reading something by the counter.

Upon seeing that Steve was awake, Bruce smiled, "You slept for quite some time. We would have been worried, but we also knew that it was about time that you got some sleep."

Steve gave a small laugh to this and sat up. He then reached and grabbed the bowl of soup that had woke his senses, and placed it on his lap.

"Hey, um, Bruce?" Steve looked at the man, who looked up from his book, "Do you know if someone was in here earlier? Or if the window was open?"

Bruce shook his head, "Just me. And it's too cold for the window to be open."

Steve nodded and looked back down at his soup.

"Do you mind asking why you asked?" Bruce tilted his head.

Steve waived his hand, "Oh, it's probably nothing. Probably just a dream." Bruce silently nodded and looked back at his book as Steve stirred his soup, "So, uh... Any news with Peter?"

Bruce didn't even look up from the book, "We sent a text to your phone. We figured that a call may be a bit risky for him."

"But no response from him." Steve didn't bother to form that as a question. He continued to play with his soup.

"We'll hear from him eventually, Steve." Bruce assured, "I'm sure that he has a reason for doing whatever it is that he is doing."

"Yeah..." Steve finally gave up on his soup and set it back on the bedside table, "I should probably get up."

Bruce finally looked up from his book as he hurried to Steve, who was currently trying to climb out of bed, "Nononono. Steve, stop."

"I need to get up and do something." Steve simply pushed Bruce to the side.

"Peter did some serious damage to your leg. You're not going to be able to stand, let alone walk."

"But I need to help find and get in touch with Peter." Steve argued as he wobbled on his feet before falling to the floor.

Bruce kneeled by him, "At least let me get you a wheelchair."

"But that will slow me down."

"Not as much as trying to walk with a broken leg." Bruce helped Steve back into the bed.

"Fine. Fine." Steve sighed, "Please, just- be quick. I don't know how much longer I can wait."

"Will do, Captain." Bruce then quickly left the room. In less than three minutes, he had already returned with a wheelchair for Steve, which Steve quickly hopped into.

"Here's your new phone, by the way." Bruce handed Steve a phone, "We figured that you would probably want another since Peter currently has yours. All of our numbers, including your old one that Peter has, is programmed into it." Bruce began to push Steve out of the room, "The rest of the team is on level twenty-six, so I'll take you there."

"No." Steve shook his head, "They're not getting anywhere with finding or contacting Peter there. I'm going out."

"What? No." Bruce stopped the chair on its tracks, "As soon a our enemies see you in a wheelchair, they will attack."

"That's the plan." Steve began to wheel the chair forward.

"Steve, stop. This is insane." Bruce, once again, halted the chair.

Steve looked at Bruce, "We know that Peter cares for me- us. And we know that part of his reason for not communicating with us is because he wants to keep us safe from whatever it is that he is doing." He shrugged, "So, if I put myself in danger of being hurt or killed by someone like Oscorp-"

"He'll come out of hiding to help you." Bruce burried his face in his hands, "Steve, you don't know if he is even watching. You could be throwing yourself out there with an assumption that isn't even true."

"It's worth a shot." Steve asserted, "So, please, Bruce. Let me go."

"I can't, Steve." Bruce looked up and shook his head, "I'm not going to let you go out and get yourself killed."

"Fine." Steve pushed himself out of the chair, "If you won't help me, I'll have to work on my own."

Bruce stood in front of Steve, trying to block him from going. However, Steve easily pushed him to the side, despite his struggles with walking. In frustration, Bruce cried out, "J.A.R.V.I.S., don't open the elevator for Captain Rogers. And keep the stairwell doors locked as well."

"J.A.R.V.I.S., please-" Steve began.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Rogers, but I have been instructed to take Doctor Banner's orders in any situation like this one." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed.

In a panic, Steve ran to the doors to the stairwell and began to bang against them, hoping to break them down.

"Steve! You're going to hurt yourself." Bruce ran to the man, trying to yank him away. Upon failing to do so, Bruce ran away for a few minutes, only to return with a syringe, which he quickly used on Steve, "I'm sorry, but if you're not going to act rationally, I have no choice but to put you back to bed."

Moments later, Steve was out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're finally getting REALLY close to the spidershield stuff too. :) I know that it has been hinted towards throughout the fic, but the coming stuff is certainly more definite.


	24. Confrontation

Steve reached over and picked up his new phone, which was currently buzzing, "Hello?"

"Steve." A voice whispered, "It's me."

"Peter?" Steve sat up, "What's going on? Where are you?"

"They figured out that I got you out- that I didn't kill you. Steve-" his voice was panicked, "I don't know if I am going to make it out."

"I'm going to be right there, don't worry." Steve tried to stand, "Just- try to get someplace safe."

"Steve, I think that they're near me." Steve could hear his breath quicken, "Steve-"

"Peter, get out of-"

Bang!

One gun.

Bang! Bang!

Two more, and the phone disconnected.

"Peter!" Steve jumped, waking himself up. He wiped the sweat that beaded his forehead, but he sighed knowing that there wasn't much he could do about the sweat that soaked his sheets at this moment.

This was certainly not Steve's first nightmare about Peter. For the past week and a half, he has been jerking awake from horrifying dreams either about Peter dying, or the horrible things that Fiers and the copy cat could be putting him through. Just last week, Steve had moved back up into his room, only to find a video taken by the copy cat just before they tried to reset Peter's brain. It took everything in the rest of his team to convince Steve, again, not to go out to find Peter and/ or kick the copy cat's ass.

Sighing, Steve rolled out of bed and onto his wheelchair. He then wheeled across his room to the door that connected his and Peter's room. After a second of hesitation, Steve opened the door and rolled up to Peter's bed.

Sometimes, he would come in with the hope that he would find Peter lying there, in his bed. Steve imagined that Peter would look at him with a tired look and ask Steve if he was alright.

"No." Steve would say.

Peter would sit up, "Bad dream?"

Steve would get closer, "The worst."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Peter would then blink his eyes to wake up a bit more.

"No. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay." Steve would then smile and leave.

But that's not what happened.

Every night, Steve would come into an empty room and find himself wondering when Peter would come home to sleep in his bed.

'He has only slept in it once.' Steve thought.

This night, Steve did something that he has never done before. He jumped into Peter's bed and laid down. Despite the fact that Peter had only slept in the bed once, it gave Steve comfort knowing that Peter was once in this spot.

Soon enough, Steve fell back asleep. He had no more nightmares that night.

-The Next Day-

Steve picked his toast out of the toaster. While he did so, he heard the elevator doors open and close.

"I just got word that S.H.I.E.L.D. is looking for Osborn, Fiers, the copy cat, and Peter." Tony's voice filled the room.

"Were they not before?" Steve questioned as he buttered his toast.

"They were, but now they have a lead." Tony informed.

Steve paused, "I don't suppose that they're willing to share that information."

"No." Tony shook his head, "I'm having J.A.R.V.I.S. look into it now."

Steve nodded, "Good."

"But, Steve-" Tony sighed, "If they do find him before us..."

"They wont." Steve stated simply.

"But if they do-" another sight, "Steve, I don't know what they are going to do to him."

"Then we can't let them find Peter first." Steve tried to get out of the wheelchair.

Tony quickly moved toward Steve, "Whoah whoah whoah whoah. What are you doing?"

"I can't find Peter in this thing." Steve finally found himself balancing on his own two feet. He then kicked the chair to the side.

Tony sighed, "Fine. But if you fall on your face, you're on your own."

"Wouldn't expect anything else from you." Steve smiled. Then, he headed out to hit the streets.

-Hours Later-

Steve walked down yet another dangerous alley, only to have nothing happen and find no sign of Peter. He was beginning to think that criminals didn't want to pick a fight with Captain America.

Who knows why?

He turned back to hop on his bike, only to stop on his tracks at the sound of a voice.

"You must be really desperate, walking down all these alleys with the hope that Peter will show." Steve turned to face the man who spoke. The copy cat, "He's not coming. He has no idea that you have been wandering around like a lost puppy. Though, he probably only cares because that means that he failed to kill you. That's a shame, but I am happy to finish the job for him. We have gotten real close." The man smirked.

"Where's Peter?" Steve chose to ignore what the man said as he walked closer.

"Probably still asleep. That's how he was when I left him." Steve could tell that the man was trying to get a reaction out of him.

And it was working.

Steve found himself shoving the copy cat against one of the walls, "Don't you dare touch him."

"Too late." the man smirked at Steve.

Steve spoke through his teeth, "I swear, if you continue to touch or hurt him-" his grip on the copy cat tightened.

"You'll do what?" The copy cat kicked Steve in the side, prompting Steve to let him go, "From what I have heard, you probably still need time to recover." He then knocked Steve over and started to kick him repeatedly. As Steve began to show signs of weakness, the copy cat picked him up by the throat and shoved him against the wall.

Steve kicked at the man, but his efforts had no effect. He could practically feel his face turning red. His vision began to blur. Then-

A phone rang.

"Hello?" Steve could faintly hear the copy cat perkily answer the call, "Are you sure?" A pause, "Okay, whatever makes you happy." Steve was dropped to the ground and he began coughing heavily. The copy cat put his phone back in his pocket and smiled, "That was Peter. He just wanted to make sure that I didn't kill you so that he could do it himself."

Steve continued coughing as the man left him behind. After a minute or two, he fell against the wall and looked up. For a second, he could have sworn that he saw a figure watching from above, but it quickly disappeared.

A thought quickly came to Steve's mind about that figure, and he smiled before getting up and leaving on his morticycle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How about that Infinity War? (*not-so-silently sobbing*)  
> If you haven't seen it, I hope that you have managed to keep from spoilers! Also, what the heck are you doing on the Internet? It's not safe here!
> 
> Anyways, to those that have seen it, I hope you all enjoyed that movie as much as I did... until the end... And please don't comment any spoilers for those that haven't watched the movie! But feel free to say what you thought. :)


	25. Reunion

'Peter, you can't keep ignoring me.' Steve sent yet another text to the young man.

He typed again, 'Look, I'm going to bed, but my phone will be on, as usual, just in case you decide to finally respond.'

'Good night, Peter. Come home soon... Please, I miss you.' Steve sighed as he sent one last text to Peter. He then laid back in his bed and closed his eyes, and eventually fell asleep.

Steve was woken up some time later by someone viciously shaking him.

"Steve! Wake up, Steve!" The person said.

Steve sat up and turned on his bedside light, "Wha-" he began to ask before noticing that it was Tony who woke him up.

"It's about Peter." The billionaire informed him.

Steve immedietly became focused, "What happened?"

Tony took a step back, "Don't freak out, but J.A.R.V.I.S. just picked up on some intel that S.H.I.E.L.D. just marched into a secret Oscorp facility. A huge fight broke out, and a lot of people were killed from gunfire. Even more died in the explosion and fire that came afterward-"

Steve gulped, "Was Peter one of those people?"

"That's the thing," Tony sighed, "I don't know. I figured that we may as well go into S.H.I.E.L.D. and see who they took as prisoners. We may be able to get some idea of what happened and where Peter is."

"Then let's go." Steve threw on his jacket. He then ran into the bathroom to change his pants and put on shoes before getting out to follow Tony to the car.

After a couple of hours, the duo landed on the S.H.E.I.L.D. Helicarrier. Steve wasted no time with pleasantries with the agents, and instead marched down toward the holding cells.

"Captain Rogers." Maria Hill took notice of his presence as she walked past a few cells, each one containing a few Oscorp goons, "I suppose you're looking for Mr. Parker?"

"Where is he?" Steve eyed the cells as he passed by.

Maria stopped in front of a cell, "He's in a holding room and being interrogated."

"Interrogated?" Steve raised his brows.

"Questioned." The woman decided to choose a softer word.

"I need to see him." Steve put his hands in his pockets.

Maria sighed, "Fine. But you have to wait until we're done with intero- questioning."

"Okay. Thank you." Steve smiled before Maria walked away.

"You're not going to get him back." A familiar voice said from behind Steve.

Steve sighed and turned to the copy cat, "You and I," he pointed his finger between the two of them, "are going to have a chat. Later." Steve turned and started to walk away, "I don't have time for you BS right now."

-Peter's POV; 2 Hours Later-

"Are you going to answer the question, Mr. Parker?" The interrogator questioned Peter, who simply looked at his hands. He was cuffed, and the cuffs were wrapped around a bar on the table.

The man sighed and stood up, "Fine. Maybe you'll talk to the next guy."

Peter felt himself gulp. A woman had come in earlier and said something to his interrogator about another person coming in. Peter immediately knew that other person would be here to torture answers out of him. He was trained to handle some torture, but he knew that Oscorp intentionally didn't train him enough so that he would be more willing to break if they needed to torture him.

The man walked to the door and opened it, sliding outside. Peter then heard him say, "He's all yours."

Peter gulped again.

However, he was sure-as-hell surprised when a certain blonde walked into the room. Peter stood up in surprise and simply stared at the man. He didn't know what to say.

Steve silently walked over with a serious look on his face and began to uncuff Peter.

Peter's stomach became jelly as the nerves began to settle in, "Steve- um. Look, I know that a lot has happened- and you probably don't understand what or why I am doing what I'm doing, but I can tell you that it is for a reason." Peter licked his lips, "I-I just want to say first that I'm sorry that I hurt you- I know that you'll argue that I couldn't control myself-" Peter watched as Steve finished uncuffing him, "but that was st-"

Peter was cut off as Steve, in one fluid swoop, turned and pressed his lips against Peter's. It took Peter completely by surprise, but he quickly found himself sinking into it. Steve had one hand pressed against Peter's neck, with his thumb pressing up Peter's chin. The other hand was gently placed on Peter's back. Peter lightly placed his hand against the arm of the hand against his neck, and pressed his lips further against Steve.

Steve jumped a little and cracked a smile, "Your hand and nose are cold." Peter smiled at this comment as well. The warmth that Steve's body, being pressed against his, provided Peter did not go unnoticed by him.

Steve's hold on Peter increased as he pulled Peter in closer, as if trying to fold Peter within himself, and Peter had to stand on his toes to keep from being lifted off the floor.

However, before he got much further, something within Peter flipped, and he pulled out.

"Mmmm- noooo." Steve whined, trying to pull Peter back.

Peter pushed away once again, "Someone could see us. We could blow my cover."

Steve stepped closer, "Tony took care of the cameras."

"Even still." Peter made a face.

Steve sighed, "Are you really going to keep this up?" He reached to lightly grab one of Peter's arms.

"Yes, of course." Peter nodded.

"After all that they have done for you? What the copy cat- they have been continuing to do to you?" Steve sat back on the table.

Peter sighed, "The copy cat told you about everything-"

"So it's true? He didn't give me much information about what exactly he and you-" Steve stood back up and walked closer to Peter, who turned away, ashamed. Steve took a deep breath, "Peter- You don't have to lie to me. And you certainly don't have to stay with them." Steve grabbed Peter's hand, "In fact, I forbid it."

"You don't give me orders." Peter retracted his hand and crossed his arms, "I want to do this. I need to."

"Peter, they could hurt you- regain control and make you do things that you'll regret." Steve once again got closer to Peter.

"I'm strong enough to resist, Steve. Besides, who will I be if I stay? I can't spend my life quivering behind you." Peter argued.

Steve reached out to touch Peter's shoulder, "That's not what-"

Peter turned and snapped, "That is exactly what you are suggesting that I do."

"Peter, please-"

"No, Steve." Peter walked past Steve and sat back down in his seat, "You should just go. I'm not going back with you guys, and I don't want you... here."

Something inside Steve broke. Peter could see it. Shattered into a million pieces. He had hurt Steve badly.

"Peter-" he tried again.

"Go!" Peter's voice raised, and Steve began to walk to the door. Steve stopped with his hand on the handle and looked back at Peter.

"You're still wearing my jacket." Steve commented, "I don't understand what you are doing or know if you know, but you still want some part of me in your life."

Peter looked away and, with tears in his eyes, ripped off the jacket. He heard Steve sigh and then the door opened and closed.

Now that Steve was gone, Peter allowed himself to fall to the floor. It hurt him so much to say and do those things to Steve.

But he had to.

The last person that Peter cared for- who he allowed himself to fall in love with as they snuck around with secret romance- ended up dead.

And Peter couldn't do anything about it.

But that was then. Now, Peter knew better. He couldn't have something - someone - like that in his life. He couldn't let history repeat itself. Not with Steve. Peter couldn't be selfish this time. The world needs Steve, and Steve doesn't deserve to face the same fate as Gwen.

So, Peter has to be mean. He has to hold back and pretend that he doesn't care for Steve.

All that he could do was fold into himself and cry.

-Steve's POV-

"You don't think that he meant it, do you?" Steve looked at Tony.

The billionaire shook his head, "He kissed back, didn't he? Honestly, I think that this is his way of keeping you safe. I mean, after what happened to Gwen-"

Steve sighed and nodded, "I guess you're right." He leaned back in his seat, "Any chance we could look in on him now?"

"I was just pulling up the footage to do that." Tony typed away on his tablet and handed it to Steve.

Steve watched as Peter rocked back and forth, clearly crying. Steve sighed, "I wish that he would just let me stay with him. I need some way to convince him that him caring for me doesn't put me in any more danger. I can handle myself." He shrugged, "And they're gunning to kill me anyway."

"You just need to say, 'They're going to kill me anyways. We might as well enjoy the time we have together.'" Tony laughed and Steve rolled his eyes, "Or you could always just kidnap him." Tony laughed even harder before Steve jumped to his feet.

"Meet me at the Quinjet in fifteen minutes." Steve instructed Tony.

The billionaire watched as Steve left the room, "Steve, I was kidding! Kidnapping is not the answer." He ran to the door, "Steve! Steve?"

But it was too late. The supersoldier was already gone.

Tony sighed, "Me and my big mouth." He threw his hands in the air, "But how could I know that he was going to take me seriously. I swear," he began stomping off to the Quinjet, "he only listens when I come up with stupid ideas."

-Peter's POV-

Peter sat on the floor, leaning against the table. He had wrapped himself in Steve's jacket a few minutes ago, as he quickly realized that S.H.I.E.L.D. has a thing for pumping cool air into their interrogation rooms.

'I thought that they would make the room hot, not cold. I've heard that that is a more effective way of making your... victims uncomfortable.' Peter thought to himself.

Peter then found himself wondering if Steve had requested that they cooled down the room so that Peter would put the jacket back on.

'You made your point, Steve. Now turn up the heat! It's freezing in here.' Peter shivered as he heard the door open and close.

"I already told you, Steve. I don't want you here." Peter's teeth chattered.

Peter felt Steve's warm body slide down to sit next to him. The man next to Peter sighed, "Peter, can we not waste time with lies?" He then proceeded to wrap an arm around Peter and pull him close.

"Steve-" Peter sighed, despite the fact that he was secretly enjoying the warmth of Steve's body, "Please don't make this any harder for me." He felt his eyes tearing up.

"I'm sorry, Peter," Peter was surprised by the feeling of a prick in his neck, "but I must do what I must to protect those that I care for. I can't watch you get hurt."

"Steve-" Peter's head began to nod off, "What did you do?"

Before Steve could respond, Peter had already fallen out of conciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we have finally got to the good Spidershield stuff! I'm sorry for taking so long to update... Things just have been extremely hectic around these parts.
> 
> Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think! That's the only way that I'll get through these. Well, post them, really. I already have the next one or two done, I'm just bad at posting.


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